Does Water Brownification Affect Duckweeds in Freshwaters? Results from a Laboratory Experiment

The influence of water brownification (an increase in color) on floating-leaved macrophytes appears to be an important issue predicting the consequences climate change freshwater ecosystems. To fill gap knowledge this area, we performed a laboratory experiment aiming test impact humic acid (HA) Lemna minor sampled from oxbow lake. Plants were exposed over seven days four different additions pure HA (resulting DOC concentrations between 5.0 ± 0.1 mg dm−3 and 36.5 0.4 dm−3). Changes duckweed total fresh biomass, leaf area root length measured, as well phosphorus, phosphates nitrates water. study did not find any significant decrease either biomass or L. under conditions enhanced content. However, found that moderate promoted growth roots, thus, increasing but area. In contrast, large suppressed roots minor, which was also coincidence with less nutrient depletion