An Experiment on Aquatic Plants:

Population Growth and Competition in Lemna sp. and Spirodela sp.1

Jerralson G. Paguio
BIO 150 X-3L

March 28, 2019

1
A scientific paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements in BIO 150 –
Ecology under Prof. John Vincent R. Pleto, 2nd semester, 2018-2019.
 INTRODUCTION

Number of individuals in a certain population may increase or decrease with time.

This change in the population is termed as the population growth. This growth is

controlled by the rate at which new individuals are added to the population through the

process of birth and immigration and the rate at which individuals leave the population

through the processes of death and emigration (Smith and Smith, 2009). The growth can

be in an exponential or logistic pattern. Exponential population growth is the geometric

increase of a population as it grows in an ideal and unlimited environment. On the other

hand, a logistic growth indicates that growth will level off as population size approaches

carrying capacity.

According to Lang & Benbow (2013), competition is most typically considered as

the interaction of individuals that vie for a common resource that is in limited supply, but

more generally can be defined as the direct or indirect interaction of organisms that leads

to a change in fitness when the organisms share the same resource. Competition can be

intraspecific or interspecific competition. Interspecific competition involves individuals

of two or more species vying for the same limited resource. Several factors may influence

the abilities of different species to compete for the shared resource. Interspecific

competition, on the other hand, is the competition among individuals with same species.

(Griffin et al., 2009)

Gause’s Exclusion Principle explains that two species with identical niches (and

compete for a single resource) cannot coexist together indefinitely. If two or more species
share a resource that is limited in supply rates of population growth and maximum

population size of each species may be depressed. (Jefferis, 2000)

Competition among plants provides many examples of how competition for one

resource can influence an individual’s ability to exploit other essential leading to a

combined effect on growth and survival. Free-floating acquatic plants such as Lemna sp.

and Spirodela sp. undergo continuous growth and therefore are excellent models for

determining the population growth rate.

It is hypothesize that the population size of Lemna sp. and Spirodela sp. will be

greater than their carrying capacity.

The main objective of this study is to know and analyze the population growth

and competition in Lemna sp. and Spirodela sp. The specific objectives were:

1. to determine the effects of intraspecific and interspecific competition on both

species;

2. to compare the growth of Lemna sp. and Spirodela sp. in different types of

media; and

3. to demonstrate changes in the populations of pure and mixed cultures of

Lemna sp. and Spirodela sp.

 MATERIALS AND METHODS

In determining the growth rate Lemna sp. and Spirodela sp., three replicate jars

were prepared. Treatment A has 50 ml distilled water and treatment B has 3 g soil plus 50

mL distilled water. 10 fronds of Lemna sp. were introduced to one set of treatments A

and B. Same number of fronds Spirodela sp. were also introduced to another set of the

same treatment. The separating of fronds was avoided during the preparation of the set-

ups. These represented pure cultures of Lemna sp. and Spirodela sp. where the initial

population (No) was 10.

Five fronds of Lemna sp. and five fronds Spirodela sp. were introduced to the

remaining set of treatments. These represented the mixed culture of Lemna and Spirodela

where the initial population was also 8. The jars were covered with a mesh for aeration

and kept on designation areas.

For each treatment, the total number of fronds of Lemna and Spirodela were

counted every other day until the frond count levels off. The visible buds which were

almost half the size of the old buds were also counted as separate individuals. A frond

that has turned yellow or had dried up was not included in the counts. After each

observation, it was made sure that no fronds were left adhering on the sides of the bottle

and that all fronds should be floating on the media.

Graphs of pure mixed cultures of Lemna and Spirodela grown in different

treatments were constructed and were separated for each treatment. Frond count vs. time

was plotted on the first graph for Lemna grown as pure and mixed while the pure and

mixed cultures of Spirodela were plotted on the second graph.

 The instantaneous growth rate (rinst) was computed using the formula:

𝑁(𝑡+1)
rinst=lnλ λ= where λ = annual finite rate of increase
𝑁𝑡

Nt = population in time t

N(t+1) = population at the next observation day

 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This part shows the results of experiment conducted regarding the population

growth in both species of aquatic plants, the Lemna sp. and Spirodela sp.

35

30

25

20
Population Size
(N) Lemna Pure Culture
15
Lemna Mixed Culture
10

0
0 5 11 13 15 16 25
Age of culture (days)

Figure 3D.1. Population growth curve of pure and mixed culture of Lemna sp. in
distilled water

The figure above showed the population growth of pure and mixed culture Lemna

sp. in distilled water. The graph above showed that Lemna has a higher population in its

pure culture compared to its population in mixed culture. Maybe, Lemna grows when

they all occupied the given space than living with different species.
 Also, the distilled water used in these treatments maybe rich in nutrients because

Lemna grows best in eutrophic waters with an element of organic enrichment from leaf

litter (Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, 2004).

Figure 3D.1. exhibited a logistic growth curve with medium time lag or dampened

oscillations.
 30

25

20

Population Size 15
Spirodela Pure Culture
(N)
Spirodela Mixed Culture
10

0
0 5 11 13 15 16 25
Age of culture (days)

Figure 3D.2. Population growth curve of pure and mixed culture of Spirodela sp. In
distilled water

Figure 3D.2 showed the population growth of pure and mixed culture Spirodela

sp. in distilled water. The graph clearly showed that Spirodela has a higher population

growth in pure culture than in mixed culture. Maybe, they got more nutrients of the

distilled water fully in pure culture because there were no other species sharing with them

the same resources than in mixed populations with Lemna resulting to a higher

population in pure culture than in mixed culture.

The graph above exhibited a logistic growth curve because the population

increases slowly then more rapidly to more or less constant due to environmental

resistance and later decreases.

 160

140

120

100
Population Size 80 Lemna Pure Culture
(N)
Lemna Mixed
60 Culture

40

20

0
0 5 11 13 15 16 25
Age of culture (days)

Figure 3D.3. Population growth curve of pure and mixed culture of Lemna sp. grown in
soil + distilled water

The above figure showed the population growth of pure and mixed culture Lemna

sp. in soil plus distilled water. The graph pellucidly shows that Lemna had a higher

population in pure culture than in mixed culture. Maybe, the Lemna absorbed the

nutrients that the soil contains in pure culture because there were no other species to

compete with than in mixed culture where the nutrients were shared by them and the

Spirodela sp.

The graph above exhibited a logistic growth curve with large time lag because

growth rate gets smaller and smaller as population size approaches a maximum imposed

by limited resources in the environment.

 60

50

40

Population Size
(N) 30 Spirodela Pure
Culture
Spirodela Mixed
20 Culture

10

0
0 5 11 13 15 16 25
Age of culture (days)

Figure 3D.4. Population growth curve of pure and mixed culture of Spirodela sp. grown
in soil + distilled water

Figure 3D.4 showed the population growth of pure and mixed culture Spirodela

sp. in soil plus distilled water. The graph obviously showed that Spirodela had a higher

population in its pure culture than in its mixed culture. This is maybe because Spirodela

eats up pollutants in water. It also ate up excessive amounts of nitrogen, phosphates, and

potassium out of detergents, ammonia and waste water and also survives off the nitrates

produced by waste water and other animal residents (LIFE 1020 Student Experiments

Spring 2013).
 The graph above exhibited a logistic growth curve with large time lag and a

logistic growth curve alone because growth rate gets smaller and smaller as population

size approaches a maximum imposed by limited resources in the environment. With this,

the population gets constant then decreases rapidly.

 Table 3D.1. Population growth of pure culture and mixed culture of Lemna sp. and
Spirodela sp.

Population Size

Age of Lemna Pure Spirodela Pure

Observation Date of Mixed Cultures
Culture Cultures Cultures
Number Observation
(days) A B
A B A B
L S L S
1 February 0 10 10 10 10 5 5 5 5
21, 2019
2 February 5 20 37 18 27 17 13 31 18
26, 2019
3 March 04, 11 13 25 108 26 40 17 14 47
2019
4 March 06, 13 28 117 25 53 30 15 48 35
2019
5 March 08, 15 16 133 25 44 15 15 47 34
2019
6 March 09, 16 17 139 26 49 19 15 45 36
2019
7 March 18, 25 1 21 17 41 10 11 7 36
2019

The table above shows the results that the population size of both aquatic plants

in the pure and mixed cultures on both treatments increases and decreases at times maybe

because of the intraspecific and interspecific competition happening. Also, the

population size exceeds its carrying capacity. This is possible because of abundance in

resources in a specific environment. However, the growth of the population will be

negative, indicating a population decrease until the population size and the carrying

capacity will become equal and stable (Cuevas et al., 2012).

The Competitive Exclusion Principle was the dominant concept on the

interspecific competition of the mixed cultures on the two treatments. It states that no
competing species can coexist. However, coexistence was permitted on the two

competing aquatic plants because they have different ecological niche (Silvertown and

Doust, 1993).

Both intraspecific and interspecific completion affects the species, in the

intraspecific competition in a pure culture competes with the same species, nutrients, and

space competition is eminent as the population increase due time. While for the

interspecific competition, the species compete for resources from other type of species

rendering a competition on the competitive ability of both, yet the consequences are

almost mutual. Resource degradation exists in these populations and a higher death rate

due to competition.
 Table 3D.2. Computed nstantaneous rates of growth( rinst) of pure culture and mixed
culture of Lemna sp. and Spirodela sp.

Computed Instantaneous Rate of Growth( rinst) between observation date

Age
range of Lemna Pure Spirodela Pure
Mixed Cultures
Observation culture Cultures Cultures
Interval at the
given A B
A B A B
interval
L S L S
1-2 5 0.69 1.31 0.59 0.99 1.22 0.96 1.82 1.28

2-3 11 0.22 1.07 0.38 0.39 0 0.07 0.42 0.61

3-4 13 0.11 0.08 -0.04 0.28 0.57 0.07 0.02 0.06

4-5 15 -0.56 0.13 0 -0.19 -0.69 0 -0.02 -0.03

5-6 16 0.06 0.04 0.04 0.11 0.24 0 -0.04 0.06

6-7 25 2.83 -1.89 -0.42 -0.18 -0.64 -0.31 -1.86 0

 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Population growth and competition in Lemna and Spirodela which are both

aquatic plants were observed. There were two treatments for each culture of the two

species and fronds of each species were placed in jars labelled as Treatment A which

corresponded to pure culture and Treatment B for mixed culture. Treatment A has

distilled water only and Treatment B has soil plus distilled water. The setups were

observed seven times for the span of 25 days with the number of fronds being counted on

each observation.

Lemna has higher population on its pure culture on the distilled water compared

to its population in mixed culture with Spirodela. Lemna also has higher population on its

pure culture on the soil plus distilled water treatment compared to its population in mixed

culture.

In the pure culture treatment, Spirodela has higher population compared to its

population in mixed culture with Lemna. It also has higher population on its pure culture

on the soil plus distilled water treatment than its population in mixed culture.

Instantaneous growth was also computed and it was observed that the population

size decreases at times due to abundance in resources in a specific environment.

Therefore, population size can exceed its carrying capacity. When this happen,

growth will be negative, indicating a population decrease until the population size will

equal the carrying capacity and become stable.

 However, this speculation is recommended to be validated by further studies on

population growth and competition on other relative species. It is also recommended that

the time of observation on the cultures should take about a month to get significant

results.
 LITERATURE CITED

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. (2004). Information sheet: Lemna sp. (Duckweeds).

Retrieved from http://www.ceh/ac/uk/sci_programmes/documents/duckweeds.pdf.

Cuevas, V.C, Cervancia, C.R. Zafaralla, M.T., Lit, I.L., Jr., Barrion-Dupo, A.L.A. &

Lambio, I.A.F. (2012). Exploring Ecology (no ed). University of the Philippines Los

Banos: Environmental Biology Division, IBS.

Jefferis, R.L. (2000). Population Growth: Experimental models using Duckweed (Lemna

sp.). Esa Lab pp. 1-3

Lang, J. M. & Benbow, M. E. (2013). Species Interactions and Competition. Retrieved

form https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/species-interactions-and-

competition-102131429

LIFE 1020 Student Experiments Spring 2013. (2013). Growth of Spirodela polyrhiza in

creek water, distilled water, and tap water. Retrieved from

https://sites.google.com/site/experimentsspring2013/duckweed-populations/group-9

Smith, T.M. & Smith, R.L. (2009). Elements of Ecology (7th ed.) San Francisco, CA:

Pearson Benjamin Cummings.