World Atlas of Freshwater Macrophytes

This is the third of five volumes of a compendium of the global distribution of about 3571 aquatic macrophyte species occurring in inland freshwater and brackish waterbodies worldwide. In addition to descriptions and maps, the volumes together highlight aspects of their ecology such as endemism, world rarity, endangered status, ecozone/macroregional occurrence, ploidy state, species age, and uses. This book provides a novel resource on the distribution and ecology of macrophytes around the world.

The Atlas fills a gap in scientific knowledge of the global ecology of an important group of aquatic plants. It highlights the expansion of invasive species and describes hotspots of endemism and rarity for freshwater macrophytes across the planet. The data included in this book range from karyology to biogeography, within a general theme of understanding the environmental factors that drive the biodiversity, ecology, landscape genetics, and conservation of aquatic plants in freshwater ecosystems. The third volume of the World Atlas of Freshwater Macrophytes: Monocotyledonous species I (Acoraceae – Cyperaceae) covers nine botanical families and 917 species of aquatic macrophytes.

The authors, based in Mexico, Scotland, Spain, and the USA are members of an informal international research network, set up in 2017 by retired aquatic botanist Kevin Murphy, which is dedicated to advancing macroecological knowledge of freshwater macrophytes in the inland freshwater and brackish waterbodies of worldwide wetland ecosystems.

The topic of this book is relevant not only to scholars and academics but also to practitioners in wetland management, decision makers, and aquatic plant hobbyists.