Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 6 - The Evolution of Aquatic Embryophytes: Secondary Colonisers of Aquatic Environments

  • from Part I - Origins and Consequences of Early Photosynthetic Organisms
  • Edited by Mario Giordano, Università degli Studi di Ancona, Italy, John Beardall, Monash University, Victoria, John A. Raven, University of Dundee, Stephen C. Maberly, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster
  • Book:
    Evolutionary Physiology of Algae and Aquatic Plants
    Published online:
    24 October 2024
    Print publication:
    07 November 2024, pp 96-112

  • Summary

    Seagrasses in marine systems and freshwater plants (macrophytes) in inland waters are important primary producers that structure their local ecosystems. They comprise the embryophytes: bryophytes, pteridophytes and angiosperms. They have adapted the genetic heritage of their land plant ancestors in response to the opportunities and challenges of life underwater. This has involved a reduction in the structures and processes required to manage: water content, the low physical support in air and the high levels of UV radiation. In contrast, inorganic carbon can restrict photosynthesis underwater but can be minimised by growing in sites with high CO2 concentrations, exploiting CO2 in the air or sediment and by CO2 concentrating mechanisms that rely on bicarbonate uptake, C4 photosynthesis or Crassulacean acid metabolism. Most aquatic embryophytes are, like their terrestrial ancestors, rhizophytic, allowing nutrients to be taken up from both the sediment and water. Some, especially the bryophytes, are haptophytic and only obtain nutrients from the water column.