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Ecology Of Periphyton In A Subtropical River Floodplain, Kamela De Gallardo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Atchafalaya River Basin (ARB) in southcentral Louisiana, USA, is a large and biologically diverse floodplain surrounding the Atchafalaya River (AR), which is the largest distributary of the Mississippi River, receiving 30% of the combined daily discharge of the Mississippi and Red Rivers. Annual flooding facilitates exchange between the AR and its floodplain and is thought to give rise to the high productivity of the river-floodplain system. Primary production within the aquatic ARB is driven by periphytic algae, phytoplankton, and aquatic macrophytes, however, very little is known about periphytic algal assemblages in floodplain systems. In this study, artificial substrates were …