DOI: 10.5061/dryad.73n5tb3bb
title: Data from: Unique roles of functional group of submerged macrophytes on ecosystem functions

description: The presence of submerged plant communities and the restoration of their
 diversity have critical impacts on aquatic ecosystem function, especially
 in eutrophic lakes. However, we lack a holistic understanding of how
 specific species and functional groups and their richness of submerged
 macrophytes affect the community productivity and water quality in aquatic
 ecosystems, and how these effects vary across water nutrient gradients.
 Here, we performed a mesocosm experiment by manipulating species richness
 and functional richness from a species pool of 22 submerged macrophytes to
 test what are the ecological implications of shifts in macrophyte
 diversity under two nutrient levels. The results showed that species
 richness significantly enhanced community productivity only at low
 nutrient levels, while functional richness had no marked effects on
 community productivity across nutrient levels. The improvement of water
 quality by increasing submerged plant diversity (species and functional
 group richness) is often efficient, despite its context-dependent effect
 (e.g., nutrient level, specific parameters). Specifically, our results
 demonstrated a remarkable role in distinct functional groups (FG). That
 is, the presence of a particular functional group characterized by high
 leaf dry mass content (LDMC) and small specific leaf area (SLA)
 significantly enlarged the reduction of total nitrogen (TN) across
 nutrient levels, as well as the reduction of total phosphorus (TP) and
 chemical oxygen demand (COD" "Mn")at low nutrient llevels
 Additionally, the presence of FG characterized by long florescence and
 great SLA significantly affected nitrate reduction at high nutrient level
 and the reduction of TN, "COD" "Mn", and conductivity
 at low nutrient level. The presence of FG, characterized by low LDMC and
 short shoot height, significantly enhanced the reduction of dissolved
 oxygen and pH. Our findings highlighted that the unique contributions of
 functional groups of macrophyte communities to water quality improvement
 should be taken into account when designing restoration strategies.
description: # Data from: Unique roles of functional groups of submerged macrophytes on
 ecosystem functions Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.73n5tb3bb](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.73n5tb3bb) ##
 Description of the data and file structure We conducted a mesocosm
 experiment to test how species richness and functional group richness of
 22 submerged macrophytes affect water quality and community productivity
 under low and high nutrient conditions. Water quality variables measured
 included chlorophyll a, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, ammonium,
 nitrate, orthophosphate, COD, dissolved oxygen, and conductivity, while
 community biomass was recorded as dry weight. The presence of different
 functional groups, characterized by traits such as leaf dry mass content,
 specific leaf area, flowering duration, and shoot height, was analyzed for
 their unique effects on ecosystem functions. Data from these measurements
 were compiled in FC_Eco.xlsx and used for all statistical analyses. ####
 File: FC_Eco.xlsx **Description:** Raw data used for all statistical
 analyses in the main text ##### Variables * Chlorophyll-a concentrations
 (Chla) * The concentration of total nitrogen (TN) * The concentration of
 total phosphorus (TP) * The concentration of ammonium (NH4) * The
 concentration of nitrate (NO3) * The concentration of orthophosphate (PO4)
 * The concentration of Chemical oxygen demand was measured with potassium
 permanganate ## Code/software Microsoft Excel ## Access information Other
 publicly accessible locations of the data: *
 [https://github.com/Gekko-CAi/Unique-roles-of-submerged-macrophytes](https://github.com/Gekko-CAi/Unique-roles-of-submerged-macrophytes) Data was derived from the following sources: * NO