O. Vestergaard et K. Sand-jensen, Aquatic macrophyte richness in Danish lakes in relation to alkalinity, transparency, and lake area, CAN J FISH, 57(10), 2000, pp. 2022-2031
Citations number
41
Categorie Soggetti
Aquatic Sciences
Journal title
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF FISHERIES AND AQUATIC SCIENCES
We examined the relationship between environmental factors and the richness
of submerged macrophytes species in 73 Danish lakes, which are mainly smal
l, shallow, and have mesotrophic to hypertrophic conditions. We found that
mean species richness per lake was only 4.5 in acid lakes of low alkalinity
but 12.3 in lakes of high alkalinity due to a greater occurrence of the sp
ecies-rich group of elodeids. Mean species richness per lake also increased
significantly with increasing Secchi depth. No significant relationship be
tween species richness and lake surface area was observed among the entire
group of lakes or a subset of eutrophic lakes, as the growth of submerged m
acrophytes in large lakes may be restricted by wave action in shallow water
and light restriction in deep water. In contrast, macrophyte species richn
ess increased with lake surface area in transparent lakes, presumably due t
o expansion of the area colonised by submerged macrophytes. Thus, the size
of the colonised area is a better predictor of species richness than lake s
urface area. The strong increase in species richness accompanying greater t
ransparency can be accounted for by the combined effect of higher colonised
area and higher habitat richness along gradients of deeper macrophyte grow
th.