Assessing Water Quality with Submersed Aquatic Vegetation
- Published:
- October 1, 1991
- Originator:
- BioScience
- Categorized in:
- Report
Submersed aquatic vegetation is comprised of rooted flowering plants that have colonized primarily soft sediment habitats in coastal, esturine, and freshwater habitats. In Chesapeake Bay, seagrasses in saline regions and freshwater angiosperms that have colonized lower-salinity portions of the estuary constitute a diverse (Approximately 20 species) community of submersersed aquatic vegetation (collectively as SAV; Hurley 1990). Seagrasses are typically defined as the approximately 60 species of marine angiosperms (den Hartog, 1970); however respreantatives of the several hundred species of freshwater macrophytes are often found in estuarine habitats (Hutchinson 1975). For the purpose of this article, the term submersed aquatic vegetation is used for both marine angiosperms and freshwater nmacrophytes that are found in Chesapeake Bay.