Oxygen uptake from aquatic macrophyte decomposition from Piraju Reservoir (Piraju, SP, Brazil)

The kinetics of oxygen consumption related to mineralisation of 18 taxa of aquatic macrophytes (Cyperus sp, Azolla caroliniana, Echinodorus macrophyllus, Eichhornia azurea, Eichhornia crassipes, Eleocharis sp1, Eleocharis sp2, Hetereanthera multiflora, Hydrocotyle raniculoides, Ludwigia sp, Myriophyllum aquaticum, Nymphaea elegans, Oxycaryum cubense, Ricciocarpus natans, Rynchospora corymbosa, Salvinia auriculata, Typha domingensis and Utricularia foliosa) from the reservoir of Piraju Hydroelectric Power Plant (São Paulo state, Brazil) were described. For each species, two incubations were prepared with ca. 300.0 mg of plant (DW) and 1.0 L of reservoir water sample. The incubations were maintained in the dark and at 20 ºC. Periodically the dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations were measured; the accumulated DO values were fitted to 1st order kinetic model and the results showed that: i) high oxygen consumption was observed for Ludwigia sp (533 mg g-1 DW), while the lowest was registered for Eleocharis sp1 (205 mg g-1 DW) mineralisation; ii) the higher deoxygenation rate constants were verified in the mineralisation of A. caroliniana (0.052 day-1), H. raniculoides (0.050 day-1) and U. foliosa (0.049 day-1). The oxygen consumption rate constants of Ludwigia sp and Eleocharis sp2 mineralisation (0.027 day-1) were the lowest. The half-time of oxygen consumption varied from 9 to 26 days. In the short term, the detritus of E. macrophyllus, H. raniculoides, Ludwigia sp, N. elegans and U. foliosa were the critical resources to the reservoir oxygen demand; while in the long term, A. caroliniana, H. multiflora and T. domingensis were the resources that can potentially contribute to the benthic oxygen demand of this reservoir

Aerobic and anaerobic decomposition of Pistia stratiotes leachates from a tropical eutrophic reservoir (Barra Bonita, SP, Brazil)

The present study discussed the kinetic aspects of leachate decomposition from an aquatic macrophyte, Pistia stratiotes L (water lettuce). This species was collected from Barra Bonita Reservoir located in the State of São Paulo (Brazil). Decomposition chambers were prepared with high molecular weight (HMW), low molecular weight (LMW) and integral (INT = HMW + LMW) dissolved organic matter (DOM) diluted with reservoir water. The samples were incubated at 20 °C, in darkness and under aerobic or anaerobic conditions. For 79 days, the concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO) and organic carbon (OC) were measured. For calculating the deoxygenation coefficients (k d) and maximum oxygen consumption (COmax) the concentration of DO was integrated and fitted to a first-order kinetics model, which also applied to the depletion of OC concentrations. The COmax of INT incubations were 4% higher than the sum of HMW and LMW fractions. The deoxygenation coefficients, k d, had the same order of magnitude for all treatments. In relation to carbon decay, regardless of the availability of oxygen, the INT DOM also showed higher mineralisation. These results suggest that the leachate mineralisations are short-term processes; when the fractionation of the leachates occurs, the LMW had organic compounds with more accessibility for heterotrophic metabolism. On the other hand, when compared to INT DOM, the HMW and LMW were less consumed suggesting an interaction of the reactivity of the leachate. Our data suggest that in the Barra Bonita Reservoir the mineralisation of P. stratiotes leachates occurs through two competitive pathways (i.e. mineralisation of the labile compounds and formation of recalcitrant organic resources and their mineralisation) in which the oxygen availability and the molecular mass of DOM can interfere in the rates of reactions