The influence of Ceratophyllum demersum L. and Stratiotes aloides L. on richness and diversity of aquatic vegetation in the lakes of mid-eastern Poland

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 Łęczna-Włodawa Lake District located in mid-eastern 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 vegetation.

Trapetum natantis Müller et Görs 1960 in hydromeliorative facilities in Serbia

“…Total phosphorus content characterizes conditions in these stands as eutrophic, which is in line with the findings of many other studies [16,35,42,43,[46][47][48][49][50]. The key factor in the differentiation of these stands compared to other groups is the lower phosphorus level with a very narrow range of variation, even though Dimopoulos et al [47] suggest that the significant development of C. demersum is only correlated with water depth.…”

Changes in Vascular Flora of the Rzeszow Reservoir after 20 Years (SE Poland)

“…The dynamics of waterside habitats also are caused by river flow, climatic factors, and connections between biotic and abiotic factors [2,26,78,79]. The analysis of recent data indicates that at the early stages of synanthropization of plant cover, floristic diversity increases as a result of the development of small patches of anthropogenic vegetation within natural plant communities [12].…”

Towards a more precisely defined macrophyte-dominated regime: the recent history of a shallow lake in Eastern Poland

“…The central part of the lake was colonised by the Stratiotes aloides community. S. aloides, considered to prefer highly hydrated and loosely packed organic sediments (Kłosowski et al, 2011), and to be a fast coloniser of shallow water bodies (Smolders et al, 1995;Królikowska, 1997;Sugier et al, 2010), provides a specialised habitat for accompanying organisms. Its ecological characteristics have been discussed in several papers (Higler, 1977;Kufel et al, 2007;Strzałek & Koperski, 2009).…”