Effects of Submerged Vegetation on Water Clarity Across Climates

• Main Authors: Sarian Kosten, Gissell Lacerot, David Da Motta
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Tundra
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.634.8030; http://edepot.wur.nl/15839/

A positive feedback between submerged vegetation and water clarity forms the backbone of the alter-native state theory in shallow lakes. The water clearing effect of aquatic vegetation may be caused by different physical, chemical, and biological mechanisms and has been studied mainly in tem-perate lakes. Recent work suggests differences in biotic interactions between (sub)tropical and cooler lakes might result in a less pronounced clearing effect in the (sub)tropics. To assess whether the effect of submerged vegetation changes with cli-mate, we sampled 83 lakes over a gradient ranging from the tundra to the tropics in South America. Judged from a comparison of water clarity inside