Abstract
A brief review is made of both published and unpublished information on the aquatic macrophyte communities of these five waters. Plants generally perform poorly in the large loch environment; near the water surface, exposure to waves has reduced much of the shoreline to a bare rocky substrate, and in deeper water, light is soon attenuated to limiting levels. In localised sheltered areas the physical conditions may be more conducive to plant colonisation; however, even here low levels of nutrients in the oxidised sediments and in the overlying water apparently prevent the development of very extensive stands of vegetation. Floristic information from the few areas studied, indicated that the small tufted species Isoetes lacustris, Lobelia dortmanna, Littorella uniflora and Subularia aquatica are the most prevalent species. Potamogeton species occur in the comparatively rich (mesotrophic) southern basin of Loch Lomond, but again only in sheltered areas.
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Bailey-Watts, A.E., Duncan, P. (1981). A review of macrophyte studies. In: Maitland, P.S. (eds) The Ecology of Scotland’s Largest Lochs. Monographiae Biologicae, vol 44. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8635-0_5
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