Effects of aquatic macrophytes on water quality and phytoplankton communities in shallow lakes

Abstract

We investigated aquatic macrophytes, water quality, and phytoplankton biomass and species composition in three shallow lakes with different levels of vegetation cover and nutrient concentration in Kushiro Moor, during August 2000. Trapa japonica can live in a wide range of nutrient levels. This species forms an environment with a steeper extinction of light, higher concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), lower concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO) near the bottom, and lower concentrations of nitrate + nitrite and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) than other vegetation types. The pH was much higher in a Polygonum amphibium community, and the DO near the bottom did not decrease compared to a T. japonica community in the summer. The relationship between chlorophyll a and the limiting nutrient (total phosphorus (TP) when total nitrogen (TN) : TP is ≥10 and TN/10 when TN : TP is <10) significantly differed between lakes with and without submerged vegetation. The chlorophyll a concentrations at a given nutrient level were significantly lower in water with submerged macrophytes than in water without them. Correspondence analysis showed that the difference in phytoplankton community structure across sites was largely due to the presence or absence of submerged macrophytes, and the ordination of phytoplankton species in the lakes with submerged macrophytes is best explained by environmental gradients of TN, chlorophyll, pH and SRP.