The influence of Emphasis Type="Italic"Ceratophy

Authors: Piotr Sugier Bogdan Lorens Stanisław Chmiel Marek Turczyński

Publish Date: 2010/09/14

Volume: 656, Issue: 1, Pages: 43-53

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate the influence of Ceratophyllum demersum L and Stratiotes aloides L on the species richness and phytocoenotic diversity of aquatic vegetation in lakes The study was based on field investigations in the ŁęcznaWłodawa Lake District located in mideastern Poland The studied lakes 32 included both polymictic and dimictic reservoirs Both in the polymictic and dimictic lakes statistically significant correlation coefficients were obtained between the parameters that characterize Stratiotes aloides the frequency in the phytosociological relevés the percent share of Stratiotetum aloidis association in the phytolittoral and those characteristic for species richness the total number of hydromacrophytes the number of charophytes elodeids nymphaeids and lemnids phytocoenotic richness the mean number of species in the phytosociological relevés and phytocoenotic diversity the Shannon–Wiener Index The communities with a share of S aloides are characterized by higher species richness However not a single case of statistically significant dependency was reported between the parameters that describe C demersum the frequency in the phytosociological relevés the percent share Ceratophylletum demersi association in the phytolittoral and the vegetation traits in both lake groups Common occurrence of Stratiotes aloides might be considered to be evidence for good status of an aquatic ecosystem and a very good indicator of species richness and diversity of aquatic vegetationGuest editors A Pieterse S Hellsten J Newman J Caffrey F Ecke T Ferreira B Gopal J Haury G Janauer T Kairesalo A Kanninen K Karttunen J Sarvala K Szoszkiewicz H Toivonen L Triest P Uotila N Willby / Aquatic Invasions and Relation to Environmental Changes Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Aquatic Weeds European Weed Research SocietyMacrophytes have an influence on nutrient dynamics sedimentation and resuspension and play an important role in natural and artificial reservoirs Barko James 1998 Jeppesen et al 1998a Madsen et al 2001 Coops 2002 Horppila Nurminen 2003 Strzałek Koperski 2009 They have a particularly strong effect on water transparency Jeppesen et al 1998a Kufel Kufel 2002 van Donk van de Bund 2002 Gross et al 2003 by providing a refuge for zooplankton Jeppesen et al 1998b and by excreting allelopathic substances that inhibit phytoplankton growth Gross et al 2003 Smolders et al 2003 Mulderij et al 2005a b 2007 They also fix substantial amounts of nutrients in their biomass Kufel Ozimek 1994 Van Donk Van de Bund 2002 This type of vegetation stabilizes the sediment and increases the level of oxygen in this environment Barko James 1998 Vermaat et al 2000 Horppila Nurminen 2001 2003Aquatic macrophytes are used for environmental monitoring and water quality assessment Kohler 1982 Schneider Melzer 2003 Schamburg et al 2004 Stelzer et al 2005 Ciecierska 2008 Penning et al 2008a Similarly to other groups of organisms they can be used as indicators of pressures such as eutrophication of lakes Murphy et al 1990 Rørslett 1991 Penning et al 2008b Presence or absence of certain macrophyte species in lakes can show good or bad water status Moss et al 2003 Penning et al 2008bThe phytocoenotic diversity of the littoral is one of the indicators determining the ecological status of lakes Council of the European Communities 2000 Several abiotic and biotic factors determine the aquatic macrophyte richness of lakes The former group of factors includes among others latitude Heino Toivonen 2008 water chemistry and the trophic state Murphy et al 1990 Rørslett 1991 Vestergaard SandJensen 2000 Bornette et al 2001 water level fluctuation Van Geest et al 2005 Holm Clausen 2006 Maltchik et al 2007 and the lake area and morphometry Rørslett 1991 Gasith Hoyer 1998 Vestergaard SandJensen 2000 Murphy 2002 Thomaz et al 2003 Among the biotic factors significant effect on the richness of plant species is exerted by dominant freshwater aquatic and wetland plant species Gopal Goel 1993 Gough et al 1994 Grace Wetzel 1998 Ervin Wetzel 2002 High aboveground growth rates in the case of these plant species are believed to contribute to their ability to outcompete other species for light by rapidly producing large quantities of photosynthetic tissues relative to neighbouring species Ervin Wetzel 2002The aim of this study was to estimate the influence of Ceratophyllum demersum L and Stratiotes aloides L on the species richness and phytocoenotic diversity of aquatic vegetation in lakes S aloides is a Eurasiatic species which grows mainly in shallow stagnant eu and mesotrophic waters Kornatowski 1976 Cook UrmiKönig 1983 Kłosowski Kłosowski 2001 This is a vigorously growing plant that will tend to swamp out other plants when grown in small ecosystems Mulderij et al 2005b C demersum belongs to circumpolar plants and is widespread in Eurasia and North America Hultén Fries 1986 The species reduces mixing of the water column and may also contribute to an increase in water transparency by excretion of allelopathic substances that inhibit phytoplankton growth Jasser 1994 1995 Mjelde Faafeng 1997 Smolders et al 2000 Usenko et al 2002 Gross et al 2003 Mulderij et al 2005a b 2007 C demersum and S aloides were noted in the list of “overall European tolerant species”—species occurring at increased frequency and abundance at higher eutrophication pressure Penning et al 2008b Both these species are very common often dominating in lakes ponds riveroxbows channels ditches and other water bodies created by peat excavation in mideastern Poland Kornatowski 1976 Sugier Lorens 2000 Kłosowski Kłosowski 2001This study is based on our own field investigation in the ŁęcznaWłodawa Lake District located in mideastern Poland 51° 17′ 49″ N and 51° 35′ 56″ N 22° 50′ 36″ E and 23° 42′ 17″ E The area belongs to the subregion of Polesie Zachodnie Kondracki 2002 The lakes constitute of a group of Polish lakes located outside the extent of the last glaciation Wilgat 1954 The processes of groundice melting thermokarst and karst phenomena contributed to the formation of lake basins Harasimiuk Wojtanowicz 1998 The study lake group includes both polymictic and dimictic reservoirs The polymictic lakes are eutrophic while the dimictic ones are both eutrophic and mesotrophic The maximum depth of the shallow lakes ranges from 11 to 65 m and they cover an area of 14 to 1367 ha The dimictic lakes are from 65 to 388 m deep and their area ranges from 85 to 2563 ha Radwan Kornijów 1998Thirtytwo lakes were surveyed in this study Field investigations were carried out in the summer seasons of 2005–2007 The occurrence of charophyte and aquatic vascular plants and plant communities was analyzed reed swamp communities covering 3–10 of the phytolittoral were not considered Macrophyte vegetation was studied with the use of the commonly applied midEuropean phytosociological method which is based on phytosociological data recorded from representative patches of vegetation by means of phytosociological relevés BraunBlanquet 1964 Phytosociological relevés 1070 were made using an elevendegree scale with + symbol for the species coverage less than 5 1—for cover of 5–10 2—for 10–20 … 10—for 90–100 In 180 of the relevés S aloides and/or C demersum were noted The number of phytosociological relevés from 2 to 18 was correlated with the area of each phytocoenosis and their structure and species composition were presented The range limits of macrophyte communities were established and phytosociological relevés were made along the transects using the Garmin GPS to record the location The number of transects from 8 to 28 was correlated with the area of a given lake and it depended on the degree of structuralspatial plant diversity The macrophytes were searched from an anchored boat or pontoon

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