Responses of four submerged macrophytes to freshwater snail density (Radix swinhoei) under clear-water conditions: A mesocosm study.

ABSTRACT: Macrophytes play a key role in stabilizing clear-water conditions in shallow freshwater ecosystems. Their populations are maintained by a balance between plant grazing and plant growth. As a freshwater snail commonly found in shallow lakes, Radix swinhoei can affect the growth of submerged macrophytes by removing epiphyton from the surface of aquatic plants and by grazing directly on macrophyte organs. Thus, we conducted a long-term (11-month) experiment to explore the effects of snail density on macrophytes with distinctive structures in an outdoor clear-water mesocosm system (with relatively low total nitrogen (TN, 0.66 ± 0.27 mg/L) and total phosphorus (TP, 36 ± 20 μg/L) and a phytoplankton chlorophyll a (Chla) range of 14.8 ± 4.9 μg/L) based on two different snail

SUBMITTER: Zhi Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7391322 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature