Effects of micro-, meio- and macroinvertebrates associated with burial on the decomposition of an aquatic macrophyte (Vallisneria natans) in a eutrophic shallow lake in China
Shaojun Chen A and Dong Wang
A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Key Laboratory for Geographical Process Analysis and Simulation, 152 Luoyu Road, Hongshan District, Hubei Province, Wuhan, 430079, PR China.
B Corresponding author. Email: dw@mail.ccnu.edu.cn
Marine and Freshwater Research 70(4) 554-562 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF18148
Submitted: 5 April 2018 Accepted: 25 September 2018 Published: 29 November 2018
Abstract
Aquatic invertebrates play an important role in plant decomposition. However, little information is available regarding the relative importance of micro-, meio- and macroinvertebrates in this process, particularly their role in the decomposition of buried organic matter. To investigate the role of these invertebrates in the decomposition of the aquatic macrophyte Vallisneria natans, leaves of V. natans were placed in litterbags with four different mesh sizes (0.025, 0.042, 0.5 and 5 mm) and the bags were either incubated at the sediment–water (SW) interface or buried at a depth of 10 cm (B10) for 60 days in Lake Nanhu, China, in July 2015. Increased mesh size significantly increased the loss of plant mass. The decomposition rate ranged from 0.0173 to 0.0467 day–1 in the SW treatment, and from 0.0083 to 0.0280 day–1 in the B10 treatment. Excluding microinvertebrates, burial significantly affected microbial respiration and invertebrate abundance. Increased mesh size increased invertebrate abundance and richness, but did not significantly affect microbial respiration in either treatment. The average contribution of micro-, meio- and macroinvertebrates and microbes to plant mass loss in the SW treatment was 23.1, 13.5, 7.0 and 56.5% respectively, compared with 19.7, 24.5, 12.3 and 43.5% respectively in the B10 treatment. The results of this study reveal the important but underestimated role of micro- and meioinvertebrates in macrophyte decomposition.
Additional keywords: meioinvertebrate, microinvertebrate.
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