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The structure and functioning of African euhydrophyte communities. The floating-leaved and submerged vegetation

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Book cover The ecology and management of African wetland vegetation

Part of the book series: Geobotany ((GEOB,volume 6))

Abstract

The littoral vegetation consists of that part of the hydrosere which is permanently wet. It extends from the shore into the open water down to the limit of the euphotic zone (Chapter I). The hydrosere is normally represented in time and space by an observed zonal ion of vegetation from emergent plants in the shallow water, to floating-leaved rooted plants and then totally submerged plants in the deeper water (Chapter 2) In Africa, and particularly in the tropics, the emergent macrophyles often dominate the vegetation, sometimes to the exclusion of other communities, giving rise to extensive swamps such as the Sudil in the Sudan and the Okavango Swamps in Botswana. Because of the importance of swamps in African freshwater ecosystems they will be considered separately (Chapter 6). This chapter considers the dynamics of the euhydrophyte communities, i.e the floating-leaved and the totally submerged vegetation. The surface floating communities are discussed in Chapters 4 and 7.

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  1. School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary College, The University of London, London, E1 4NS, England

    Patrick Denny

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© 1985 Dr W. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht

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Denny, P. (1985). The structure and functioning of African euhydrophyte communities. The floating-leaved and submerged vegetation. In: Denny, P. (eds) The ecology and management of African wetland vegetation. Geobotany, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5504-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5504-2_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8929-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-5504-2

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