Aquatic quillworts, Isoëtes echinospora and I. lacustris under acidic stress-A review from a temperate refuge.

Quillworts (Isoëtes) represent highly specialized flora of softwater lakes, that is, freshwater ecosystems potentially sensitive to acidification. In this paper, we combine a review of previous studies and our new results to address unrecognized reproduction strategies of quillworts to overcome long-term environmental stresses. These strategies play an important role in the plant's ability to overcome atmospheric acidification of freshwaters, protecting the plants until their environment can recover. Environmental drivers of recovery of Isoëtes echinospora and I. lacustris were studied in two acidified lakes in the Bohemian Forest (Central Europe). Both populations survived more than 50 years of severe acidification, although they failed to recruit new sporelings. Their survival depended entirely on the resistance of long-living adult plants because the quillworts do not grow clonally. During the past two decades, a renewal of I. echinospora population inhabiting Plesné Lake has been observed, while no such renewal of I. lacustris, dwelling in Cerné Lake, was evident, despite similar changes in water composition occurring in both lakes undergoing advanced recovery from acidification. Our in vitro experiments revealed that the threshold acidity and toxic aluminium concentrations for sporeling survival and recruitment success differed between I. echinospora (pH ≤ 4.0 and ≥300 µg L-1 Al at pH 5) and I. lacustris (pH ≤ 5.0 and ≥100 µg L-1Al at pH 5). The higher sensitivity of I. lacustris to both stressors likely stems from its year-long germination period and underlines the risk of exposure to chronic or episodic acidification in recovering lakes. By contrast, the shorter germination period of I. echinospora (2-3 months) enables its faster and deeper rooting, protecting this quillwort from periodic acidification during the next snowmelt. Our study brings novel insights into widely discussed environmental issues related to the long-term degradation of softwater lakes, which represent important hotspots of pan-European biodiversity and conservation efforts.

Effect of weir impoundments on methane dynamics in a river.

We measured CH4 concentration, CH4 oxidation in the water column and total CH4 emissions to the atmosphere (diffusion and ebullition) in three weir impoundments and river reaches between them, in order to understand their role in river methane (CH4) dynamics. Sediment samples were also collected to determine CH4 consumption and production potentials together with the contribution of individual methanogenic pathways. The CH4 surface water concentration increased 7.5 times in the 16km long river stretch. Microbial CH4 oxidation in the water column reached values ranging from 51 to 403nmoll-1d-1 and substantially contributed to the CH4 removal from surface water, together with CH4 emissions. The total CH4 emissions to the atmosphere varied between 0.8 and 207.1mmolCH4m-2d-1 with the highest values observed upstream of the weirs (mean 68.5±29.9mmolCH4m-2d-1). Most of the CH4 was transported through the air-water interface by ebullition upstream of the weirs, while the ebullition accounted for 95.8±2.0% of the total CH4 emissions. Both CH4 production and oxidation potential of sediments were higher upstream of the weirs compared to downstream of the weirs. The contribution of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis to total CH4 sediment production was 36.7-89.4% and prevailed upstream of the weirs. Our findings indicate that weirs might influence river CH4 dynamics, especially by increased CH4 production and consumption by sediments, followed by increasing CH4 emissions to the atmosphere.

Use of the diffusive gradients in thin films technique to evaluate (bio)available trace metal concentrations in river water.

Concentrations of Cd, Cu, Cr, Pb, Ni and Zn were monitored in the Svitava River (the Czech Republic) during April and September 2005. Total concentrations and total dissolved concentrations were obtained through regular water sampling, and the diffusive gradients in thin films technique (DGT) were used to gain information on the kinetically labile metal concentrations. Each measured concentration was compared with the corresponding average (bio)available concentration calculated from the mass of metal accumulated by the moss species Fontinalis antipyretica. The concentrations of Cd, Pb, Cr and Zn measured using DGT corresponded well with those obtained after the deployment of Fontinalis antipyretica moss bags in the Svitava River, but the concentrations of Cu and Ni did not. The calculated (bio)available Cu concentration correlated well with the total dissolved concentration of Cu, whereas no correlation was found to exist between the concentrations of Ni.