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Consumer-driven nutrient release to the water by a small omnivorous fish enhanced ramet production but reduced the growth rate of the submerged macrophyte Vallisneria denseserrulata (Makino) Makino

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Abstract

Small fish are highly associated with submerged macrophytes but may potentially hamper their growth due to nutrient excretion that stimulate growth of phytoplankton and periphyton growth. We conducted a mesocosm experiment to elucidate the effects of the small omnivore Chinese bitterling Acheilognathus macropterus on the growth of phytoplankton, periphyton and the submerged macrophyte Vallisneria denseserrulata. The treatments were fishless as well as low (LF) and high (HF) fish density. We found that the concentrations of nutrients and the phytoplankton biomass increased substantially in both fish treatments, leading to a significantly higher light attenuation compared with the control. Moreover, bitterling substantially enhanced the biomass of periphyton on plant leaves. Consequently, the relative growth rate (RGR) of V. denseserrulata was significantly suppressed in HF, while RGR in the LF treatment did not differ significantly from the controls. However, the bitterling also stimulated the ramet production of V. denseserrulata, significantly. Our results indicate that Chinese bitterling reduce the RGR of V. denseserrulata under high fish density condition. Therefore, the density of Chinese bitterling should be kept low in order to reduce the negative effects of the fish on the RGR of submerged macrophytes (e.g. V. denseserrulata), when restoring lakes by plant transplantation.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Yuanzhang Hou, Liu Yang, Mingfei Wang, Wei Zhen and Ruijie Shen for their help in the field and the laboratory and to Anne Mette Poulsen for her linguistic assistance. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877415), National Key Research and Development Project (2017YFA0605201), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BK20170109) and the NIGLAS 135 Project (NIGLAS2018GH03). JY was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Scholarship for a one-year research visit at the Flathead Lake Biological Station, University of Montana, USA. EJ was supported by AQUACOSM (Network of Leading European AQUAtic MesoCOSM Facilities Connecting Mountains to Oceans from the Arctic to the Mediterranean), AnaEE Denmark (anaee.dk) and the TÜBITAK outstanding researcher program BIDEB 2232 (Project 118C250).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Jinlei Yu, Yanyan Zhao, Hu He, Baohua Guan, Feizhou Chen & Zhengwen Liu

  2. Department of Ecology and Institute of Hydrobiology, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510630, China

    Manli Xia & Zhengwen Liu

  3. Sino-Danish Centre for Education and Research (SDC), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Baohua Guan, Feizhou Chen, Zhengwen Liu & Erik Jeppesen

  4. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Silkeborg, 8600, Denmark

    Erik Jeppesen

  5. Limnology Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences and Centre for Ecosystem Research and Implementation, Middle East Technical University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey

    Erik Jeppesen

  6. Institute of Marine Sciences, Middle East Technical University, 33731, Mersin, Turkey

    Erik Jeppesen

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  1. Jinlei Yu
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Yu, J., Xia, M., Zhao, Y. et al. Consumer-driven nutrient release to the water by a small omnivorous fish enhanced ramet production but reduced the growth rate of the submerged macrophyte Vallisneria denseserrulata (Makino) Makino. Hydrobiologia 848, 4335–4346 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04643-5

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