THE ABILITY OF LEAVES AND RHIZOMES OF AQUATIC PLANTS TO ACCUMULATE MACRO- AND MICRONUTRIENTS

Abstract

The samples of macrophytes and bottom sediments originated from the littoral zone of the Słupia River were collected in summer 2013. The aim of this study was to compare the properties of the accumulation of leaves and rhizomes of Glyceria maxima, Phragmites australis, Typha latifolia and Phalaris arundinacea for macro- and micronutrients. The largest quantities of macroelements were found in the leaves of the examined species, and microelements dominated the rhizomes of most examined macrophytes except for Mn in P.australis and T.latifolia. The obtained results show that N and K dominated in the leaves of P.arundinacea, P and Mg in the leaves of P.australis, and Ca in the leaves of G.maxima. The largest quantities of N, P and K were cumulated in the rhizomes of P.arundinacea, while Mg and Ca in the rhizome of T.latifolia. The leaves of aquatic plants accumulated from 1354.9 mmolc·kg-1 (T.latifolia) to 1844.0 mmolc·kg-1 (P.arundinacea), and rhizomes from 985.8 mmolc·kg-1 (G.maxima) to 1335.2 mmolc·kg-1 (P.arundinacea) of all the analyzed components. In these species of macrophytes lower accumulated value of the sum of macro- and microelements were found in the rhizomes. The share of nitrogen was 42.4–59.8% of this amount, phosphorus 4.3–8.6%, potassium 22.8–35.1%, calcium from 2,6% to 12.4%, magnesium 3.0–7.5%, and heavy metals were from 0.6% (G.maxima) to 1.2% (T.latifolia) in leaves and from 2.2% (T.latifolia) to 8.7% (G.maxima) in rhizomes.

Keywords

• bottom sediments
• Glyceria maxima
• Phragmites australis
• Phalaris arundinacea
• Typha latifolia
• accumulation of nutrients