Global diversity of aquatic macrophytes in freshwater
By P. Chambers, P. Lacoul, K. Murphy, S. Thomaz. Hydrobiologia, 2007
543 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Aquatic macrophytes are aquatic photosynthetic organisms, large enough to see with the naked eye, that actively grow permanently or periodically submerged below, floating on, or growing up through the water surface. Aquatic macrophytes are represented in seven plant divisions: Cyanobacteria, Chlorophyta, Rhodophyta, Xanthophyta, Bryophyta, Pteridophyta and Spermatophyta. Species composition and distribution of aquatic macrophytes in the more primitive divisions are less well known than for the vascular macrophytes (Pteridophyta and Spermatophyta), which are represented by 33 orders and 88 families with about 2,614 species in c. 412 genera. These c. 2,614 aquatic species of Pteridophyta and Spermatophyta evolved from land plants and represent only a small fraction (∼1%) of the total number of vascular plants. Our analysis of the numbers and distribution of vascular macrophytes showed that whilst many species have broad ranges, species diversity is highest in the Neotropics, intermediate in the Oriental, Nearctic and Afrotropics, lower in the Palearctic and Australasia, lower again in the Pacific Oceanic Islands, and lowest in the Antarctic region. About 39% of the c. 412 genera containing aquatic vascular macrophytes are endemic to a single biogeographic region, with 61–64% of all aquatic vascular plant species found in the Afrotropics and Neotropics being endemic to those regions. Aquatic macrophytes play an important role in the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems and certain macrophyte species (e.g., rice) are cultivated for human consumption, yet several of the worst invasive weeds in the world are aquatic plants. Many of the threats to fresh waters (e.g., climate change, eutrophication) will result in reduced macrophyte diversity and will, in turn, threaten the faunal diversity of aquatic ecosystems and favour the establishment of exotic species, at the expense of native species.
Subfields: Ecology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Environmental Chemistry
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0e6bffb9975d33b53f9bf74e75ed00b8160714ef
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Citations in the corpus
- The Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment: an overview of the results (2008, background): “This amounts to ca. 1% of the total number of vascular plants known to date (270,000: Chambers et al., 2008, present volume).”
- Hydrilla verticillata (Hydrocharitaceae), a recent invader threatening Brazil’s freshwater environments: a review of the extent of the problem (2011, background): “Among the main biogeographic regions of the planet, the Neotropical region has the highest diversity of freshwater vascular macrophytes, with 984 species, of which 61% are endemics (Chambers et al., 2008).”
- Growth of free-floating aquatic macrophytes in different concentrations of nutrients (2008, background): “On the other hand, aquatic macrophytes play an important role in the structure and function of the aquatic environment ( Chambers et al., 2008; Engelhardt & Ritchie, 2001).”
- Plants in aquatic ecosystems: current trends and future directions (2017, background): “Given their well-documented importance in aquatic ecosystems, research into aquatic plants continues to blossom.”
- Wildlife in a changing world : an analysis of the 2008 IUCN red list of threatened species (2009, background): “IUCN and Conservation International have recently joined forces to assess the estimated 27,394 freshwater species included in the fi ve species groups mentioned above (Chambers et al. 2008; Bogan 2008; Strong et al. 2008; Yeo et al. 2008; Kalkman et al. 2008; Lévêque et al. 2008).”