title: Does mechanical disturbance affect the performance and species composition of submerged macrophyte communities?
abstract: Submerged macrophyte communities are frequently subjected to disturbance of various frequency and strength. However, there is still little experimental evidence on how mechanical disturbance affects the performance and species composition of such plant communities. In a greenhouse experiment, we constructed wetland communities consisting of five co-occurring clonal submerged macrophyte species (Hydrilla verticillata, Elodea canadensis, Ceratophyllum demersum, Chara fragilis, and Myriophyllum spicatum) and subjected these communities to three mechanical disturbance regimes (no, moderate and strong disturbance). Strong mechanical disturbance greatly decreased overall biomass, number of shoot nodes and total shoot length, and increased species diversity (evenness) of the total community. It also substantially decreased the growth of the most abundant species (H. verticillata), but did not affect growth of the other four species. Our data reveal that strong disturbance can have different effects on different submerged macrophyte species and thus alters the performance and species composition of submerged macrophyte communities.
authors.affiliation: 1] School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China [2] Department of Experimental Plant Ecology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands [3].
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: 1] School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China [2].
authors.forename: Ying-Shou
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Gong-Qi
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Ming-Xiang
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Fei-Hai
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D044784:Chara / Q000254:growth & development*; D017753:Ecosystem; D005618:Fresh Water; D031321:Hydrocharitaceae / Q000254:growth & development*; D010944:Plants