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Macrophyte
Aquatic plants, also referred to as hydrophytes, are vascular plants and non-vascular plants that have adapted to live in aquatic environments ( saltwater or freshwater). In lakes, rivers and wetlands, aquatic vegetations provide cover for aquatic animals such as fish, amphibians and aquatic insects, create substrate for benthic invertebrates, produce oxygen via photosynthesis, and serve as food for some herbivorous wildlife. Familiar examples of aquatic plants include waterlily, lotus, duckweeds, mosquito fern, floating heart, water milfoils, mare's tail, water lettuce, water hyacinth, and algae. Aquatic plants require special adaptations for prolonged inundation in water, and for floating at the water surface. The most common adaptation is the presence of lightweight internal packing cells, aerenchyma, but floating leaves and finely dissected leaves are also common.Sculthorpe, C. D. 1967. The Biology of Aquatic Vascular Plants. Reprinted 1985 Edward Arnold, by London.H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from the ocean, although they may be connected with the ocean by rivers. Lakes, as with other bodies of water, are part of the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Most lakes are fresh water and account for almost all the world's surface freshwater, but some are salt lakes with salinities even higher than that of seawater. Lakes vary significantly in surface area and volume of water. Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which are also water-filled basins on land, although there are no official definitions or scientific criteria distinguishing the two. Lakes are also distinct from lagoons, which are generally shallow tidal pools dammed by sandbars or other material at coastal regions of ocean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Freshwater Ecosystem
Freshwater ecosystems are a subset of Earth's aquatic ecosystems that include the biological communities inhabiting freshwater waterbodies such as lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, springs, bogs, and wetlands. They can be contrasted with marine ecosystems, which have a much higher salinity. Freshwater habitats can be classified by different factors, including temperature, light penetration, nutrients, and vegetation. There are three basic types of freshwater ecosystems: lentic (slow moving water, including pools, ponds, and lakes), lotic (faster moving streams, for example creeks and rivers) and wetlands ( semi-aquatic areas where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of the time). Freshwater ecosystems contain 41% of the world's known fish species. Freshwater ecosystems have undergone substantial transformations over time, which has impacted various characteristics of the ecosystems. Original attempts to understand and monitor freshwater ecosystems were spurre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Mosquito Fern
''Azolla'' (common called mosquito fern, water fern, and fairy moss) is a genus of seven species of aquatic ferns in the family Salviniaceae. They are extremely reduced in form and specialized, having a significantly different appearance to other ferns and more resembling some mosses or even duckweeds. '' Azolla filiculoides'' is one of two fern species for which a reference genome has been published. It is believed that this genus grew so prolifically during the Eocene (and thus absorbed such a large amount of carbon) that it triggered a global cooling event that has lasted to the present. ''Azolla'' may establish as an invasive plant in areas where it is not native. In such a situation, it can alter aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity substantially. Phylogeny Phylogeny of ''Azolla'' Other species include: At least six extinct species are known from the fossil record: *'' Azolla intertrappea'' Sahni & H.S. Rao, 1934 (Eocene, India) *'' Azolla berryi'' Brown, 1934 (Eocene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Nymphaea Alba
''Nymphaea alba'', the white waterlily, European white water lily or white nenuphar , is an aquatic flowering plant in the family Nymphaeaceae. It is native to North Africa, temperate Asia, Europe and tropical Asia (Jammu and Kashmir). Since ''Nymphaceae alba'' is an aquatic plant, its specialized trichomes are hydropotes, formed at an abaxial surface of the young leaf and packed tightly in the rosette at the rhizome's flattened apex. The rhizomes contain high amounts of carbohydrate and protein. Description ''Nymphaea alba'' has a white flower that usually blooms during the daytime in most summer. The flower blooms on top of a big rounded green leaf up to 30 cm: both leaves float on the water's surface. At first, the flower bloom is cup-shaped, with a size of around 8 cm, then it rises to 20 cm and becomes star-shaped over time. The flower's petals are arranged in a row, pointing up surrounding several yellow stamens. The leaves can be up to in diameter and take ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabolism. ''Photosynthesis'' usually refers to oxygenic photosynthesis, a process that produces oxygen. Photosynthetic organisms store the chemical energy so produced within intracellular organic compounds (compounds containing carbon) like sugars, glycogen, cellulose and starches. To use this stored chemical energy, an organism's cells metabolize the organic compounds through cellular respiration. Photosynthesis plays a critical role in producing and maintaining the oxygen content of the Earth's atmosphere, and it supplies most of the biological energy necessary for complex life on Earth. Some bacteria also perform anoxygenic photosynthesis, which uses bacteriochlorophyll to split hydrogen sulfide as a reductant instead of water, p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Adaptation (biology)
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the population during that process. Thirdly, it is a phenotypic trait or adaptive trait, with a functional role in each individual organism, that is maintained and has evolved through natural selection. Historically, adaptation has been described from the time of the ancient Greek philosophers such as Empedocles and Aristotle. In 18th and 19th-century natural theology, adaptation was taken as evidence for the existence of a deity. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace proposed instead that it was explained by natural selection. Adaptation is related to biological fitness, which governs the rate of evolution as measured by changes in allele frequencies. Often, two or more species co-adapt and co-evolve as they develop adaptations tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Water Hyacinth
''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth, is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive species, invasive outside its native range.''Pontederia crassipes'' Kew Royal Botanic Gardens Plants of the World Online. Accessed April 19, 2022.''Eichhornia crassipes'' Kew Royal Botanic Gardens Plants of the World Online. Accessed April 19, 2022. June 15, 2016. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Water Lettuce
''Pistia'' is a genus of aquatic plants in the arum family, Araceae. It is the sole genus in the tribe ''Pistieae'' which reflects its systematic isolation within the family. The single species it comprises, ''Pistia stratiotes'', is often called water cabbage, water lettuce, Nile cabbage, or shellflower. Its native distribution is uncertain but is probably pantropical; it was first scientifically described from plants found on the Nile near Lake Victoria in Africa. It is now present, either naturally or through human introduction, in nearly all tropical and subtropical fresh waterways and is considered an invasive species as well as a mosquito breeding habitat. The specific epithet is derived from a Greek word, στρατιώτης, meaning "soldier", which references the sword-shaped leaves of some plants in the '' Stratiotes'' genus. Description ''Pistia stratiotes'' is a perennial monocotyledon with thick, soft leaves that form a rosette. It floats on the surface of the wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Hippuris
''Hippuris'', the mare's tail, was previously the sole genus in the family Hippuridaceae. Following genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it has now been transferred to the family Plantaginaceae, with Hippuridaceae being reduced to a synonym of Plantaginaceae. It includes one to three species depending on taxonomic interpretation. Some authorities only accept the first species of those listed below, treating the other two as synonyms of it: * Common mare's tail, ''Hippuris vulgaris'' ** Mountain mare's tail, ''Hippuris montana'' ** Fourleaf mare's tail, ''Hippuris tetraphylla'' They are aquatic plants found in shallow ponds and streams, both slow-moving and fast-flowing. ''Hippuris'', despite being a flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with . ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Water Milfoil
''Myriophyllum'' (water milfoil) is a genus of about 69 species of freshwater aquatic plants, with a cosmopolitan distribution. The centre of diversity for ''Myriophyllum'' is Australia with 43 recognized species (37 endemic). These submersed aquatic plants are perhaps most commonly recognized for having elongate stems with air canals and whorled Leaf, leaves that are finely, pinnately divided, but there are many exceptions. For example, the North American species ''M''. ''tenellum'' has alternately arranged scale-like leaves, while many Australian species have small alternate or opposite leaves that lack dissection. The plants are usually heterophyllous; leaves above the water are often stiffer and smaller than the submerged leaves on the same plant and can lack dissection. Species can be monoecious or dioecious. In Monoecy, monoecious species, plants are hermaphrodite, while in Dioecy, dioecious species, plants are either male or female, the flowers are small, 4(2)-parted and us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Floating Heart
''Nymphoides'', or floatingheart, is a genus of aquatic flowering plants in the family Menyanthaceae. The genus name refers to their resemblance to the water lily '' Nymphaea''. ''Nymphoides'' are aquatic plants with submerged roots and floating leaves that hold the small flowers above the water surface. Flowers are sympetalous, most often divided into five lobes (petals). The petals are either yellow or white, and may be adorned with lateral wings or covered in small hairs. The inflorescence consists of either an umbellate cluster of flowers or a lax raceme, with internodes occurring between generally paired flowers. Species of ''Nymphoides'' are sold as aquarium plants, including the "banana plant", '' N. aquatica'' and the "water snowflake", '' N. indica''. Species native to the United States are '' N. cordata'' in the northeast and '' N. aquatica'' in the southeast. '' Nymphoides peltata'' is native to Europe and Asia, but can be found in the United States as an inva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Duckweed
Lemnoideae is a subfamily of flowering aquatic plants, known as duckweeds, water lentils, or water lenses. They float on or just beneath the surface of still or slow-moving bodies of fresh water and wetlands. Also known as bayroot, they arose from within the arum or aroid family (Araceae), so often are classified as the subfamily Lemnoideae within the family Araceae. Other classifications, particularly those created prior to the end of the twentieth century, place them as a separate family, Lemnaceae. These plants have a simple structure, lacking an obvious stem or leaves. The greater part of each plant is a small organized "thallus" or "frond" structure only a few cells thick, often with air pockets (aerenchyma) that allow it to float on or just under the water surface. Depending on the species, each plant may have no root or may have one or more simple rootlets. Reproduction is mostly by asexual budding (vegetative reproduction), which occurs from a meristem enclosed at the b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |