Multi-Scale Controls on Water Quality Effects of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in the Tidal Freshwater Hudson River

Patches of submerged vegetation can be important sites of primary production and habitat for organisms in many aquatic ecosystems. In the tidal freshwater Hudson River they make up about 6% of the river bottom area. Direct sampling of water masses passing through patches of vegetation and week-long...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecosystems (New York) 2006-02, Vol.9 (1), p.84-96
Main Authors: Findlay, S.E.G, Nieder, W.C, Blair, E.A, Fischer, D.T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Aquatic ecosystems
Aquatic plants
Biological and medical sciences
Dissolved oxygen
ecological function
Estuaries
Fresh water
Freshwater ecosystems
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Heterogeneity
Influent water
Lotic systems
Macrophytes
Oxygen
Plants
Primary production
Rivers
Sediments
Sondes
submerged aquatic plants
Submerged plants
Suspended sediments
Synecology
Turbidity
Vallisneria americana
Vegetation
Water monitoring
Water quality
Water quality control
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Summary:Patches of submerged vegetation can be important sites of primary production and habitat for organisms in many aquatic ecosystems. In the tidal freshwater Hudson River they make up about 6% of the river bottom area. Direct sampling of water masses passing through patches of vegetation and week-long continuous monitoring of water characteristics were used to determine plant effects on dissolved oxygen and suspended sediments. Vegetated areas could have dissolved oxygen concentrations substantially higher than in the main channel and suspended sediments and turbidity were frequently higher in vegetated areas. Patches of Vallisneria americana had variable capacity to maintain super-saturated oxygen concentrations; patch size accounted for some of the variability whereas larger-scale differences in main-channel influent water also contributed. Differences in turbidity among sites were harder to account for; width of plant beds and abundance of neighboring vegetated areas contributed weakly to predictions of local turbidity. Functional heterogeneity within ecosystems is common and attempts to explain variability may require understanding different controlling factors for different functions and appreciating that factors operate at multiple scales.
ISSN:1432-9840
1435-0629
DOI:10.1007/s10021-004-0053-7