Abstract
Submerged plants that grow in saline lakes must survive wide fluctuations of habitat salinity, water level, water transience (ephemerality), temperature and light as well as extreme levels of each. These environmental parameters are the most important determinants of the flora in salt lakes and they are often interlinked. This contribution suggests that the ability to tolerate wide fluctuations of combinations of environmental factors rather than extreme levels of each factor determines which plants will grow in saline lakes. The idea that, similarly, it may be fluctuations rather than extremes that determine the floral composition in other aquatic ecosystems is also explored.
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Brock, M.A. (1986). Adaptation to Fluctuations rather than to Extremes of Environmental Parameters. In: De Deckker, P., Williams, W.D. (eds) Limnology in Australia. Monographiae Biologicae, vol 61. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4820-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4820-4_6
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