Growth and Production of Aquatic Mosses in Acidified Lakes of Karelia Republic, Russia

Three small acidified lakes (pH of water 5.3–5.9) in Karelia Republic, northwestern Russia, were studied in respect to speciescomposition, phytomass, and morphometric characteristics of aquatic mosses in their dense carpet. The dense moss carpet inlake L1 (mainly, Sphagnum denticulatum Bird.) occurred at a depth of 5.0–7.5 m and covered about 50% of the bottom area. The monospecific moss carpets occurred in lake L2 (Warnstorfia exannulata s. lato) and lake L3 (Fontinalishypnoides Hartm.) at depths of 5.0–7.0 m and 4.5–5.5 m and covered 20 and 13% of the bottom, respectively. The moss phytomass was 43–53 g air-dry mass m-2 in the lake L2 andlake L3, while it was much higher in lake L1 – 293 g m-2.Seasonal changes in shoot morphology of S. denticulatum,W. exannulata s. lato and in size and density of leavesalong the shoot axis of F. hypnoides allowed to reconstructthe annual growth and to estimate of growth rates of the mossesin their natural habitat within dense carpet. The absolutely netproduction of the mosses was estimated on the basis of thesedata. In two lakes (L2 and L3), the annual means of absolutelynet production of the aquatic mosses were 32–41 g air-dry massm-2 yr -1, while in the third lake (L1) they weremarkedly higher – 157 g m-2. The obtained results andcharacteristics of aquatic mosses are compared with those formosses in acidified Lake Grane Langsø in Denmark.