The composition and ecology of periphyton communities in freshwaters

Abstract

The surfaces of aquatic plants are not metabolically inert, yet much evidence seems to suggest that they exert little influence on the composition of the periphytic algal communities associated with them. Other evidence indicates a specificity of the algal communities to particular macro- phyte species. Evidence is given here, from a variety of studies, that the influence of host type in determining periphyton community composition is greatest in infertile lakes, but, that in progressively more fertile water, external environmental factors become more important.