Aquatic vegetation in rivers often modifies hydraulic resistance and can enhance seasonally occurring flooding. To which extent a plant constitutes an obstacle in the flow is strongly influenced by its biomechanical traits which determine the ability of plants to reconfigure in the flow, i.e. to adopt a shape that minimizes drag forces and hence to smooth the flow dynamics in and around submerg...

Performance of the specialist herbivore Spodoptera pectinicomis (Hampson) was studied when fed the floating aquatic plant waterlettuce, Pistia stratiotes L. (Araceae). Plants were either collected from 6 populations in southern Florida or from plants grown with low or high fertilizer levels. Consumption of leaves with increasing toughness resulted in increased larval mortality (>80%); most mort...

in order to evaluate the phragmites australis, myriophyllum spicatum and potamogeton perfoliatus aquatic plant species as an indicator organism of heavy metals pollution in bio-monitoring studies of the aquatic ecosystems, the aim of this study was to determine the levels of heavy metals accumulation zn, cu, pb and cd in sediments, roots, stems and leaves of these plants in north and south of t...

Wetlands are often considered sinks for contaminants, and Aquatic plants have been shown to play important roles in wetland biogeochemistry through their active and passive circulation of elements. In this research, in order to evaluate the concentration level of heavy metals released by the urban, industrial and agricultural activities at the margin of the rivers flowing into Anzali lagoon, as...

Herbivores induce plants to undergo diverse processes that minimize costs to the plant, such as producing defences to deter herbivory or reallocating limited resources to inaccessible portions of the plant. Yet most plant tissue is consumed by decomposers, not herbivores, and these defensive processes aimed to deter herbivores may alter plant tissue even after detachment from the plant. All con...

Background & Aims of the Study: Aquatic macrophytes, given their rapid growth and high bio mass production, great potential to accumulate heavy metals in their organs. Phragmites australis as a hyper-cumulative plant plays an important role in the bioremediation. The Badavar River of Noorabad, Lorestan province, is exposed to urban wastewater and agricultural runoffs. In order to heavy metals (...

Several aquatic species were examined as potential phytoremoval agents for selenium in aqueous solutions. Selenium was initially present in concentrations of 0-100 ppm Se (as sodium selenite) in 10% Hoagland’s medium, and aquatic plants were grown in the medium for one week. Four aquatic plants were studied: Cattail ( Typha domingensis ), duckweed ( Lemna obscura ), hydrilla ( Hydrilla verticil...

the occurrence and fate of trace-level contamination of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment has been recognized as one of the emerging issues in environmental chemistry. the effluents of wastewater treatment plants, usually directly emitted to the environment, often contain the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac. diclofenac was chosen because it is of high consumption; by background liter...

The distribution of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in Baiyangdian Lake, China, was determined in this study. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was the dominant PFC in lake water (1.70–73.5 ng L , median 9.72 ng L ), while perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was the dominant PFC in sediments (0.06–0.64 ng g 1 dry wt, median 0.19 ng g 1 dry wt) and in aquatic animals (0.57–13.7 ng g 1 wet wt, median 2....

In this paper we review the knowledge of the ecology of the largest freshwater ecosystem on Earth: the rice-fields, and in particular the rice-fields from Valencia (Spain) making a special consideration to the cyanobacteria present in this ecosystem. Rice-fields are artificial shallow aquatic ecosystems in which the land management and the agricultural practices together with the rice plant gro...