The effects of biodiversity gradient on plant mass and metabolism of individual submerged macrophytes

Abstract

Background The effects of biodiversity on community function and services are frequently studied in the history of ecology, while the response of individual species to biodiversity remains great elusive. In this study, we determined the biodiversity effects on community productivity as well as species level plant mass and carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) metabolism of eight submerged plants. These macrophytes in Lake Erhai were selected and planted in a water depth of one meter along a diversity gradient of 1, 2, 4 or 8 species. Then, the community productivity or species level plant mass, soluble protein, free amino acid and soluble carbohydrate were correlated to species richness to determine the biodiversity effects on community and single species. Results The results showed that the community level biomass was positively correlated to plant species richness although the species level plant mass of individual species responded differently to the overall plant species richness. Namely, only one plant mass positively correlated to species richness and the others decreased or showed no significant correlation with the increase of species richness. The soluble proteins of most macrophytes were positively correlated to species richness; however, both the free amino acid and soluble carbohydrate of the plants were negatively or not significantly correlated to species richness. Conclusions These results indicated that the selection effects might dominate in our aquatic communities and the negative impacts of biodiversity on C and N metabolism of the macrophytes increased with the increase of species richness, which might result from the strong competition among the studied species. The biodiversity effects on the plant mass, and C and N metabolism of individual submerged species were first reported in this study, while more such field and control experiments deserve further research.

High-light inhibition of two submerged macrophytes in a shallow water experiment

“…Generally, our experiment indicated that the two studied species responded differently to light, and even the different determined characteristics of the same species showed different responses to light ( Figs 1 and 2 ; Table 1 ). The results are in good agreement with the results of many former experiments due to the differences between species and the index specificity within a species ( Rae et al 2001 ; Hanelt et al 2006 ; Wu et al 2018 , 2020 ; Qi et al 2021 ). Our results highlighted that the plant mass, RGR, shoot height, ramet number (result because of trade-off between growth and reproduction) and leaf mass were significantly affected by high light although plant species explained most (>49 %) of the total variance in the above five measured indices ( Table 1 ).…”

The latitudinal and longitudinal allelopathic patterns of an invasive alligator weed (Alternanthera philoxeroides) in China

“…This might because that the LA of L. sativa is promoted by the low concentration of the aqueous extracts, in accord with former studies [35]. Overall, the different responses of the determined characteristics of the target species to the allelopathy is clearly due to their different sensitivity or the index specificity within a species [36][37][38]. In this study, our results showed that the leaves of A. philoxeroides from all of the sampling sites demonstrated strong allelopathic effects on the seed germination and seedling growth of the target species (Table 2).…”

Quantitative Assessment of Macrophytes Diversity and their Status in Wetlands of Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh (India)

“…Different studied diversity indices are Shannon-Wiener Index (H'), Simpson's Index (D), Species Richness (R), and Evenness (E) gave the result as 3.451, 0.042, 33 and 0.946 respectively. The high diversity index represents the positive condition of wetlands as because of lower pollution percentage and less disturbance in the campus when compared to urban landscapes giving an opportunity to the macrophytes for better growth and development (Qi et. al., 2021, Li et.…”