Quantifying the ecological impacts of alien aquatic macrophytes: A global meta‐analysis of effects on fish, macroinvertebrate and macrophyte assemblages

Abstract

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How Eutrophication Promotes Exotic Aquatic Plant Invasion in the Lake Littoral Zone?

“…89,90 Invasion of exotic macrophytes has a strong detrimental impact on the abundance and diversity of the resident macrophytes, with common species becoming more widespread and rare species becoming rarer. 4,89 A previous study showed invasion of A. philoxeroides significantly reduced the number of species and seedling density in the soil seed bank of the reed community. 91 However, we did not discover any obvious effects of invasive plants on the plant biomass, ramet number, and RGR of the native species, probably because the two species selected for this study had high environmental adaptability, 20,40 resulting in a relatively weak influence of invasive plants on their morphological traits.…”

“…Lakes that are biologically invaded become more similar in species composition. , Invasion of exotic macrophytes has a strong detrimental impact on the abundance and diversity of the resident macrophytes, with common species becoming more widespread and rare species becoming rarer. , A previous study showed invasion of A. philoxeroides significantly reduced the number of species and seedling density in the soil seed bank of the reed community .…”

“…Aquatic plants, being key main primary producers and ecosystem engineers of the littoral zone of lakes, create complex and diversified habitats and provide a variety of ecological functions. − They provide spawning, incubation, and refuge sites for zooplankton, benthic animal, and fish and act as a trap and a purifier for pollutants flowing into the lake. − Thus, the complex and highly structured environment of the littoral zone has important implications for lake biodiversity conservation. , However, the vegetated area in this zone is shrinking, and the biodiversity is decreasing worldwide due to eutrophication, usually caused by agricultural pollution, extraordinary development of fishery culture, and over-exploitation by tourists. ,, These changes alter the multiple ecological function of the littoral zone …”

“…Aquatic plant invasions pose a widespread and ever-increasing threat to lake ecosystems, e.g., by causing decline in biodiversity, habitat homogenization, and degradation of ecological functions. ,− In some cases, invasiveness of exotic species is dependent on the strength and type of stressor (e.g., nutrient enrichment and habitat destruction) as well as species composition and plant density in the invaded habitat. − Eutrophication leads to reduced submerged plant diversity and habitat damage, and in this way, it may produce ecological niche vacancies that are open for aquatic plant invasion. In general, lake eutrophication leads to an increase in nitrogen concentration and a decrease in light availability in the water column, subsequently causing nitrogen accumulation and carbon shortage in plants. − Under low light conditions, submerged plants usually elongate to reach the water surface in order to obtain more sunlight, while their biomass and ramet number usually show a decrease. , Changes in plant traits may affect plant invasiveness or their resistance to invasion.…”

Does the wetland invader, Alternanthera philoxeroides cause different ecological impact compared to the native Typha angustifolia? A comparison of sediment stoichiometry and microbial pattern between urban and periurban rivers

“…Ramsar Convention has proposed the de nitions of urban and periurban wetlands based on the urbanperiurban gradient (Ramsar 2008). However, little is known about how the impact of invasive alien macrophytes on wetland soil including carbon pool, fertility, stoichiometry and microbial diversity, assemblage, structure and function along the urban-periurban gradient (Tasker et al 2022). In the present study, the impact of the nuisance invasive macrophyte, A. philoxeroides on wetland soil was studied in two river wetlands with different urbanization contexts.…”