Harnessing aquatic plant growth forms to apply European nutrient-enrichment bioindicators to Canadian waters.

ABSTRACT:

Premise

Aquatic macrophyte species abundance and nutrient affinity are used in metrics to assess the trophic condition of lakes and rivers. The development of these indices is often regional, with inter-regional comparisons being complicated by the lack of taxonomic overlap. Here, we use a traits-based approach to expand the geographic scope of existing metrics.

Methods

We generalized European trophic affinity values using the response of plant growth form to the light-nutrient gradient, then applied these values to sites in Canada. We evaluated the method's performance against the measured total phosphorus concentration (TP).

Results

Free-floating and emergent growth forms were associated with enriched waters (>0.2 mg/L TP), whereas rosette forms were associated with

SUBMITTER: Tyrrell CD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9400395 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul-Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature