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Influence of nitrogen loading and flooding on seedling emergence and recruitment from a seed bank in Chaohu Lake Basin, China

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Abstract

Vegetation severely degraded and even disappeared in the water bodies of Chaohu Lake basin, which is the fifth largest freshwater lake in the Yangtze flood plain in China, because of water pollution and eutrophication. Vegetation restoration projects have been carried out. However, the influences of water quality and hydrology on vegetation restoration from seed banks have been rarely investigated. This experiment aimed to identify the effect of water level and nitrogen loading (ammonium and nitrate) on seedling emergence and recruitment from the riparian seed bank of the river in this basin. Most of the species in the seed bank germinated under moist conditions. Under flooding conditions, however, the growth of aquatic species, especially Vallisneria natans (Lour.) Hara, was inhibited when the nitrogen concentration increased. At 0.37 mg/L NH4 +-N in the water column, the growth of V. natans was inhibited. The results suggested that flooding was a primary limiting factor of seedling emergence. The inhibitory effect of high nitrogen loading on the growth of aquatic species was one of the main driving mechanisms of macrophyte degradation under flooding conditions; nevertheless, competitive advantage might determine the community pattern in moist habitats. Therefore, water level control and water quality improvement should be the key aspects of vegetation restoration in degraded rivers or lakes.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the projects of the National Major Program of Science and Technology (Grant Nos. 2011ZX07303 and 2012ZX07103-004) and the National Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 51108334).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Naxin Cui, Juan Wu & Shuiping Cheng

  2. Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 Donghu South Road, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China

    Yanran Dai

  3. Institute of Hanjiang, Hubei University of Arts and Science, Xiangyang, 441053, China

    Zhu Li

Authors
  1. Naxin Cui
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  2. Juan Wu
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  3. Yanran Dai
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  4. Zhu Li
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  5. Shuiping Cheng
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Correspondence to Shuiping Cheng.

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Responsible editor: Boqiang Qin

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Cui, N., Wu, J., Dai, Y. et al. Influence of nitrogen loading and flooding on seedling emergence and recruitment from a seed bank in Chaohu Lake Basin, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 22688–22697 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9926-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9926-0

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