Catchment properties and the photosynthetic trait composition of freshwater plant communities

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aay5945
• Publication Date: 2019-11-15T00:06:31Z
• Authors: L. L. Iversen; A. Winkel; L. Baastrup-Spohr; A. B. Hinke; J. Alahuhta; A. Baattrup-Pedersen; S. Birk; P. Brodersen; P. A. Chambers; F. Ecke; T. Feldmann; D. Gebler; J. Heino; T. S. Jespersen; S. J. Moe; T. Riis; L. Sass; O. Vestergaard; S. C. Maberly; K. Sand-Jensen; O. Pedersen
• Keywords: Aquatic Organisms; 0303 health sciences; photosynthesis; aquatic plants; Carbon Dioxide; 15. Life on land; Adaptation, Physiological; 6. Clean water; Bicarbonates; Lakes; Magnoliopsida; 03 medical and health sciences; Rivers; 13. Climate action; articles; ta1181; Photosynthesis; Biologie

Change in plants as bicarbonate rises

Freshwater plants can be broadly divided into two major categories according to their photosynthetic traits: Some use carbon dioxide as their carbon source, whereas others use bicarbonate. Iversen et al. found that the relative concentrations of these two inorganic carbon forms in water determine the functional composition of plant communities across freshwater ecosystems (see the Perspective by Marcé and Obrador). They created global maps revealing that community composition is structured by catchment geology and not climate (in contrast to the terrestrial realm, where the trait composition is structured by temperature and rainfall). Anthropogenic influences from land-use change are causing large-scale increases in bicarbonate concentrations in freshwater catchments and are thus leading to wholesale changes in the composition of their aquatic plant communities.

Science , this issue p. 878 ; see also p. 805