Abstract
Plant invasion and water eutrophication severely damage wetland plant growth. However, the effects of plant invasion and water nutrient levels on the growth of submerged plants with different leaf types remain unclear. Here, we conducted a greenhouse experiment with three Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) invasion intensity levels, two water nutrient levels, and three planting models (the flat-leaf plant Hydrilla verticillata (L.f.) Royle alone, the needle-leaf plant Myriophyllum verticillatum L. alone, and a mixture two species). Under the single planting mode, the biomass of H. verticillata increased, while that of M. verticillatum decreased with increasing water nutrient levels. Moreover, the submerged plant interspecific relationship changed from promotion to competition as the invasion intensity increased. Structural equation modeling showed that invasion intensity and water nutrient level had significant negative and positive effects on H. verticillata growth, respectively, but did not significantly affect M. verticillatum. Our findings highlight that H. verticillata (the needle-leaf plant) was more sensitive to invasion intensity and water nutrient levels than M. verticillatum (the flat-leaf plant), and the growth of H. verticillata was significantly inhibited by invasion intensity but benefited from more water nutrients.
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2021YFC2600400), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2015ZCQ‐BH‐01), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0505905), the China Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (2017ZX07602‐004‐003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31470475), and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission financial support through the Innovative Transdisciplinary Program “Ecological Restoration Engineering”.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Y Z & S-H A; Data analysis was performed by L-J Y & R C; Y-L S wrote the first draft of the manuscript. S-Y Z & X-F Y completed the revision of manuscript, K S, J-F C & J-J X completed the language improvement, H-L L & G-C L completed review of the original manuscript. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Shen, YL., Zhang, SY., Yuan, XF. et al. Flat-leaf submerged plants are more sensitive to invasion intensity and water nutrition levels than needle-leaf ones. Hydrobiologia 850, 3849–3863 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-023-05226-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-023-05226-2