Hydrostatic pressure and aquatic plant growth: a laboratory study

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A method was tested for growing aquatic vascular plants at elevated hydrostatic pressure so that the influence of other factors will not mask the specific plant-pressure interaction. Eighteen species of submersed vascular plants, belonging to twelve families and several distinct growth forms, were subjected to series of hydrostatic pressures including those well in excess of those encountered by the species when growing at its normal depths in lakes. Under no circumstances was the form of the plant altered even at the highest pressures, equivalent to that at a water depth of 23 m. The removal of confounding extraneous factors depends upon controlling competing algae, on raising the pressure in a series of steps, on maintaining the pressure without fluctuations during the growing period, on suiting the light and temperature conditions to the species and maintaining aquasoil air spaces or allowing them to develop. These preliminary data suggest that the level of hydrostatic pressure in the depth distribution of aquatic plants cannot be either a necessary or a sufficient controlling factor.