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Science 29 February 1980:
Vol. 207. no. 4434, pp. 987 - 989
DOI: 10.1126/science.207.4434.987
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Articles

Phosphorus Sources for Aquatic Weeds: Water or Sediments?

R. CARIGNAN 1 and J. KALFF 1

1 Department of Biology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3A 1B1

Nine common species of aquatic macrophytes took all their phosphorus from the sediments when grown in situ in both a mesotrophic and a mildly eutrophic bay. Even under hypertrophic conditions, the sediments contributed an average of 72 percent of all the phosphorus taken up during growth. These experiments unambiguously demonstrate for the first time that submergent macrophytes in nature over-whelmingly depend on the sediments for their phosphorus supply and characterize them as potential nutrient pumps to the open water.

Submitted on August 27, 1979
Revised on November 5, 1979


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Vegetation growth in rivers: influences upon sediment and nutrient dynamics.
S. J. Clarke (2002)
Progress in Physical Geography 26, 159-172
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