Carbon dioxide and submersed macrophytes in lakes: linking functional ecology to community composition.

Evaluating plant community response to atmospheric CO rise is critical to predicting ecosystem level change. Freshwater lakes offer a model system for examining CO effects as submersed macrophyte species differ greatly in their growth responses to CO enrichment, and free CO concentrations among these habitats show a wide range of natural, spatial variation. We determined free CO concentrations in the water column and sediment porewater in littoral zones with pH < 6.