Yu Cao 操瑜

Yu Cao 操瑜
Chinese Academy of Sciences | CAS · Wuhan Botanical Garden [Wuhan Institute of Botany]

PhD

About

70
Publications
18,923
Reads
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844
Citations
Introduction
I am very interested in macrophyte community. Meantime I am also into outreach programmes for local community. Our lab is expecting Post-doc. If you are interested, please contact me. 在等一起探讨关于水生植物研究的同仁。众里寻他千百度,蓦然回首,那人却在,灯火阑珊处。
Additional affiliations
January 2015 - April 2017
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Position
  • Professor (Assistant)
October 2013 - October 2015
Aarhus University
Position
  • excxhange phd student

Publications

Publications (70)
Article
Global warming may affect snail–periphyton–macrophyte relationships in lakes with implications also for water clarity. We conducted a 40-day aquaria experiment to elucidate the response of submerged macrophytes and periphyton on real and artificial plants to elevated temperatures (3�C) under eutrophic conditions, with and without snails present. Wi...
Article
Due to their unique surface structures and physicochemical properties, microplastics (MPs) can adsorb other contaminants, thus impacting their toxicity and fate in aquatic ecosystems. In the present study, the adsorption and transportation of copper ions (Cu²⁺) in polyethylene (PE, 5 and 150 μm) and their combined effects on four submerged macrophy...
Article
Full-text available
Background and aims: Allometric scaling between stomata and xylem for terrestrial woody plants is a widely observed pattern that may be constrained by water transport. Floating-leaved plants, a special life form of aquatic plants, have leaves in direct contact with both air and water and a poorly developed xylem that may not be limited by water su...
Article
Full-text available
Submerged macrophytes play an important role in maintaining the structure and function of shallow lakes. Under eutrophication, the community of submerged macrophytes shows a shift of growth forms from rosette-like to canopy-forming macrophytes and a further decline due to the increasing shading from epiphyton and phytoplankton. However, at the earl...
Article
Full-text available
Net ecosystem production (NEP) is an important indicator of lake ecosystem function and integrity. An earlier study, restricted to one geographical region, indicated that oxygen saturation levels (DO%) might be used to predict daily NEP in shallow lakes. To test the generality of the method, we used DO% data collected in a standardised pan-European...
Article
Full-text available
Both the increasing salinity levels and the decline of submerged macrophytes represent growing concerns in global freshwater ecosystems, posing a threat to water quality and various aquatic organisms. However, there is a limited understanding of the interactive effects of salinity and submerged macrophytes on zooplankton and benthic Ostracoda in tr...
Article
Dam construction in natural rivers alters the intensity and frequency of water level fluctuations in reservoirs and their downstream river reaches, leading to the biotic homogenization of riparian communities. Although the intensity of dam‐induced water level fluctuations is often described qualitatively, quantitative analysis of its effects on rip...
Article
Full-text available
Aquatic plants play a key role in the structuring and functioning of shallow lake ecosystems. However, eutrophication often triggers shifts in plant communities and species diversity, especially in the early stages when the water is still clear. Additionally, water depth is an important factor regulating aquatic plant communities. We conducted a 50...
Article
Full-text available
The increasing frequency and intensity of heat waves caused significant damages to urban woody species, and the different leaf structures between evergreen and deciduous species may be closely related to leaf heat tolerance. However, whether the different leaf structural traits of evergreen and deciduous plants contribute to their different respons...
Article
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Pollinators mediate interspecific and intraspecific plant–plant indirect interactions (competition vs. facilitation) via density-dependent processes, potentially shaping the dynamics of plant communities. However, it is still unclear which ecological drivers regulate density-dependent patterns, including scale, pollination niches (i.e., the main po...
Article
Full-text available
Submerged macrophyte and periphyton are main primary producers which strongly interact with each other in clear water shallow lakes. In this study, the effects of genetic variation of the macrophyte species on periphyton biomass were studied in five submerged species. A two-year mesocosm study was conducted with four levels of genetic diversity (1,...
Article
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The effect of biodiversity on ecosystem productivity has been a controversial issue in ecological research. The species richness–productivity relationship is highly variable in natural ecosystems, with a positive relationship being one of the most commonly observed relationships. Previous regional studies from terrestrial ecosystems have demonstrat...
Article
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Bisphenol A (BPA) is considered a contaminant of emerging concern and interferes with the normal activities of living organisms. The toxicity of BPA is evident in animals and terrestrial plants. However, the response of aquatic plants to low BPA concentrations is still unclear. In the present study, effects of varying BPA loadings (targeting at 0.0...
Article
Full-text available
Flow regulation is a prolific and growing influence on rivers world‐wide. Nine cascade hydropower dams were constructed along the 1,150‐km Wujiang River in China over the past 30 years, disrupting longitudinal continuity. Water level fluctuations in the associated reservoirs range between daily, weekly, seasonal, and annual, depending on the type o...
Preprint
Full-text available
Bisphenol A (BPA) is considered a contaminant of emerging concern and interferes with the normal activities of living organisms. The toxicity of BPA is evident in animals, while there have been relatively few studies focused on the effects of this chemical on plants especially how submerged macrophytes respond to low BPA concentrations is still unc...
Article
The Wang Lake Wetland is a highly valued area that is protected due to its high biodiversity. The wetland has a complicated hydrological regime and is subject to frequent human disturbance. We hypothesize that fluctuating hydrology and human activities have varied contributions to the temporal and spatial variations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarb...
Article
Full-text available
Exploring the relative roles of environmental and spatial factors in shaping community composition is crucial to gain insights into community assembly. At present, however, their roles in riparian plant communities remain to be fully elucidated. Here, we investigated the responses of taxonomic and functional trait compositions of riparian plant com...
Article
In shallow eutrophic lakes, submersed macrophytes are essential for maintaining a clear water state, and they are affected markedly by fishes directly through herbivory and indirectly by fish-invertebrate-periphyton complexity, a pathway that presently is not well understood in subtropical lakes but probably vital to lake managements. We conducted...
Article
Studies on aquatic biodiversity in different waterbody types have attracted significant attention worldwide to achieve the goal of freshwater conservation. Different freshwater habitats can help maintain regional biodiversity by directly supporting aquatic plants and forming networks to promote aquatic dispersal across regions. However, few studies...
Article
Submerged plants are crucial for maintaining a clear water state in lakes, and their distribution area is usually determined by the lowest distribution boundary (LDB). However, LDBs of submerged macrophytes often exhibit species differences and vary with seasonal water level fluctuations. In this study, we carried out a three-year field investigati...
Article
Warming, eutrophication, and increased omnivory by small-sized fish are global change processes that induce major effects on the food web structure and primary producers of shallow lakes. Despite the key relevance of phytoplankton and periphyton in freshwaters, the combined and potential synergistic effects of fish omnivory, warming and eutrophicat...
Article
Full-text available
Water level plays a crucial role in the function and social services of lakes. Studies on historical changes in water level and its eco-social function can give insights into future water conservation and management. In this study, interannual and seasonal changes in the water level of Erhai Lake were analyzed from 1952 to 2019 to explore water lev...
Article
Full-text available
Periphyton is an ecological essential in freshwater lakes and rivers. Its abundance and biomass are very dynamic in various habitats and subject to various factors, for example, nutrient and light. Following flooding events, the transitional area adjacent to a river inlet and the shallow lake generates diverse habitats for periphyton with gradients...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Warming, eutrophication, and increased omnivory by fish are global change processes that induce major effects in the food web structure and primary producers of shallow lakes. Despite the key role of phytoplankton and periphyton in freshwaters, the combined and potential synergistic effects of fish omnivory, warming and eutrophication on these comm...
Article
Full-text available
Warming and higher nitrogen loading induced by increasing precipitation are expected scenarios in north temperate regions as consequence of global climate change, with potential effects on the functional traits of submerged macrophytes and periphyton. Using an experimental heating facility we investigated the responses of three-week growth of two s...
Article
Full-text available
Global changes (e.g., warming and population growth) affect nutrient loadings and temperatures , but global warming also results in more frequent extreme events, such as heat waves. Using data from the world's longest-running shallow lake experimental mesocosm facility, we studied the effects of different levels of nutrient loadings combined with v...
Article
Full-text available
Phytoplankton usually responds directly and fast to environmental fluctuations, making them useful indicators of lake ecosystem changes caused by various stressors. Here, we examined the phytoplankton community composition before, during, and after a simulated 1-month heat wave in a mesocosm facility in Silkeborg, Denmark. The experiment was conduc...
Article
Full-text available
Shallow lakes are globally the most numerous water bodies and are sensitive to external perturbations, including eutrophication and climate change, which threaten their functioning. Extreme events, such as heat waves (HWs), are expected to become more frequent with global warming. To elucidate the effects of nutrients, warming, and HWs on zooplankt...
Article
Full-text available
The underlying principles influencing bacteria community assembly have long been of interest in the field of microbial ecology. Environmental heterogeneity is believed to be important in controlling the uniqueness and variability of communities. However, little is known about the influence of the host macrophytes on epiphytic bacteria assembly. In...
Article
Full-text available
The relative importance of environmental and spatial drivers in shaping local plant diversity patterns remains unclear. Here, we investigated the environmental and spatial drivers regulating species composition of the submerged macrophyte community in Erhai Lake, China, over different seasons and water-depth gradients. Results showed that environme...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding how biological communities respond to climate change is a major challenge in ecology. The response of ectotherms to changes in temperature depends not only on their species-specific thermal tolerances but also on temperature-mediated interactions across different trophic levels. Warming is predicted to reinforce trophic cascades in li...
Article
Full-text available
The global distribution of microplastic (particle size < 5 mm) is of growing concern, especially in aquatic environments where it may cause adverse effects on resident organisms. To date, however, few studies have focused on the impacts of microplastic on aquatic plants. Here, we conducted a microcosm study to investigate the toxic effects of micro...
Article
Full-text available
Macrophytes play a key role in stabilizing clear‐water conditions in shallow freshwater ecosystems. Their populations are maintained by a balance between plant grazing and plant growth. As a freshwater snail commonly found in shallow lakes, Radix swinhoei can affect the growth of submerged macrophytes by removing epiphyton from the surface of aquat...
Article
Submerged macrophytes are important primary producers in freshwater ecosystems in tropical zones. Extreme climate events such as strong typhoons in tropical coastal areas are expected to increase in frequency in the near future, which could induce salinity changes and significantly influence aquatic macrophytes. However, few studies have focused on...
Article
Ammonium is a paradoxical chemical because it is a nutrient but also damages ecosystems at high concentration. As the most eco-friendly method of water restoration, phytoremediation technology still faces great challenges. To provide more theoretical support, we exploited six common submerged macrophytes and selected the most ammonium-tolerant and...
Article
Leaves are critical plant organs for photosynthesis. In addition, leaf length is an important indicator of leaf size. Although previous studies have revealed the maximum length of leaves from terrestrial plants, as well as their limiting factors, these issues remain relatively unexplored for leaves of submerged macrophytes. Based on meta-analysis o...
Article
Full-text available
Submerged macrophytes, as one of the most important primary producers in shallow lakes and streams, have attracted significant research attention, with relevant studies showing dynamic evolution over the past three decades. Here, we investigated the trends and characteristics of 2,836 relevant articles published between 1991 and 2018 based on bibli...
Article
Full-text available
More frequent extreme climate events (e.g., extreme precipitation) are to be expected in the future, and such events may potentially have significant effects on freshwater ecosystems. In the present mesocosm study, the effects of simulated extreme precipitation on submerged macrophytes were evaluated for three different macrophyte community (MC) tr...
Article
Full-text available
Submerged macrophytes play a structuring role in the shallow freshwater ecosystem by increasing the heterogeneous state in freshwaters. The macrophytes in genus Ottelia were featured for their broad leaves, which might consequently produce specialized functions that differed from other submerged species. To explore the potential ecological role of...
Article
Submerged macrophytes are considered the main primary producers in shallow lakes. Recently, they have experienced a decline due to increasing environmental impacts, e.g., excessive heavy metal loads. Compared to extensive studies on vegetative growth, reports on effects of heavy metals on propagule germination and reproduction remain scarce. In thi...
Article
Full-text available
Climate warming may influence the relationship among macrophyte–periphyton–phytoplankton and change the producer community structure in shallow lakes, as elevated temperature has been suggested to promote the dominance of phytoplankton. We performed a 5-month experiment (starting in winter, December) to elucidate the responses of three phototrophic...
Article
Full-text available
The damming of rivers results in hydrological modifications that not only affect the aquatic ecosystem but also adjoining terrestrial systems. Thirteen dams commissioned along the Wujiang River have induced ecological problems, including decreased water turbidity and loss of biodiversity, which potentially influence ecosystem net primary production...
Article
We analysed changes in the abundance, biomass and cell size of the microbial food web community (bacteria, heterotrophic nanoflagellates, ciliates) at contrasting nutrient concentrations and temperatures during a simulated heat wave. We used 24 mesocosms mimicking shallow lakes in which two nutrient levels (unenriched and enriched by adding nitroge...
Article
Yu et al.'s paper showed very interesting effects of high nitrogen (N) on the submerged macrophytes Vallisneria natans: active growth in the growing season enabled the macrophytes partly to overcome the ammonium stress. This result was evident in an experiment using ten pond ecosystems; however, their conclusion that shading induced by high phytopl...
Article
Full-text available
The ongoing global climate change involves not only increased temperatures but may also produce more frequent extreme events, such as severe rainfall that could trigger a pulse of nutrients to lakes. In shallow lakes, this may affect primary producers through a number of direct and indirect mechanisms. We conducted a six-month mesocosm experiment t...
Article
Full-text available
Pulse inputs of heavy metals are expected to increase with a higher frequency of extreme climate events (heavy rain), leading to stronger erosion of contaminated and fertilized farmland soils to freshwaters, with potentially adverse effects on lake ecosystems. We conducted a 5-month mesocosm study to elucidate the responses of the submerged macroph...
Article
Shallow lakes may play an important role for the nitrogen (N) balance in drainage basins by processing, transferring and retaining N inputs. An increase in the frequency of storm‐induced short‐term N pulses and increased water temperatures are both likely outcomes of climate change, potentially affecting the N processing in lakes. An experiment wit...
Article
Shallow lakes are a key component of the global carbon cycle. It is, therefore, important to know how shallow lake ecosystems will respond to the current climate change. Global warming affects not only average temperatures, but also the frequency of heat waves (HW). The impact of extreme events on ecosystems processes, particularly greenhouse gas (...
Article
Full-text available
Ottelia alismoides is a constitutive C4 plant and bicarbonate user, and has facultative crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) at low CO2. Acclimation to a factorial combination of light and CO2 showed that the ratio of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) to ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) (>5) is in the range of that of C4 pla...
Article
Full-text available
Reproductive allocation is a key process in the plant life cycle and aquatic plants exhibit great diversity in their reproductive systems. In the present study, we conduct a field investigation of three aquatic macrophytes: Stuckenia pectinata, Myriophyllum spicatum, and Potamogeton perfoliatus. Our results showed that widespread species, including...
Article
Eutrophication alters biological and physical characteristics of aquatic freshwater ecosystems, and different macrophytes exhibit variable capacities to tolerate the subsequent stress factors. Myriophyllum spicatum is one of the most eutrophication tolerant submerged macrophyte species. M. spicatum from Fuxian (oligotrophic) and Xingyun (eutrophic)...
Article
Full-text available
The global climate change may lead to more extreme climate events such as severe flooding creating excessive pulse-loading of nutrients, including nitrogen (N), to freshwaters. We conducted a 3-month mesocosm study to investigate the responses of phytoplankton, zooplankton and Vallisneria spinulosa to different N loading patterns using weekly and m...
Article
Full-text available
Elevated temperatures and extreme climatic events, such as heat waves, can negatively affect submerged macrophytes. Here, we investigated how submerged macrophytes adapted to three different temperatures: 1) ambient, 2) ca. +3 oC and 3) ca. +4.5 oC responded to a heat wave. After ten years of adaptation, the shoots of two species of submerged macro...
Article
The effects of cold stratification, light and seed clustering in petri dish on Ottelia alismoides seed germination were investigated. The seeds required light and an extended cold period in order to germinate, but neither treatment alone was effective. Seed germination significantly increased with length of the 4°C cold stratification period. Fresh...

Questions

Questions (7)
Question
I have been comparing the community structure of aquatic plants and terrestrial herbs since they are both herbs but growing in so different habitats.
I want to see what is the key point to rule their community structure. As is well known, the precipitation is important for terrestrial herbs. Light and nutrient are also important for species composition in the terrestrial plant community. While for aquatic plants, water availability is no more limiting but water depth comes in as an new factor. Light and nutrient become more important.Therefore, it is something that can be testified in controlled systems.
What do you think which one can be the key point for plant community?
Question
we collect the species in a small river.
It looks like a terrestrial species. However, it could grow new green leaves under water.
I have no idea what it is, and I hope for help.
Here are pictures for the habitat and the new shoot growing under water surface.
Question
Here are the figures.
small and fragile stems with alternate leaves.
beautiful aquatic plants
looking for a scientific name of it.
Question
this is a new plant found by my friends in China, and I have compared with the flora of China, It seems not perfect match here.
the previous pictures I post got lots of quick and good comments. So I am very grateful and hope this species could also be identified.
Feel really bad when seeing the plants but without the name as a researcher of aquatic plants.
Question
Very interesting species I found in our garden, but not fit for the list in Flora of China  as far as I checked.
It is now growing in a botanical garden in central China with subtropical climate. But no information for its collecting site is known.
The plant is very soft and easy to break into fragments. 
No flowering has been found during the four-year cultivation. 
Question
I am trying to do a meta-analysis research about the periphyton and epiphyton at the global scale to compare the biomass and other parameters. There were so many papers to read, does anyone have a standard method to choose the paper?

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