CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF AQUATIC MACROPHYTES FROM MUSURA BAY (DANUBE DELTA, ROMANIA)

摘要

The Romanian Danube Delta is situated in the eastern part of Europe, and it is the largest continuous marshland and the second largest delta on the continent (the Volga being the largest). Danube Delta, as a unique, as well as a young and continuing to grow region, is a favorable place for developing a unique flora and fauna in Europe, with many rare and protected species. The great biodiversity of Danube Delta is considered to be in a better state than in other deltas from Europe, and it contains a great range of lower and higher plants, invertebrates, vertebrates and habitat types.All of these are arguments for the designation of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (DDBR) by the Romanian Government in 1990, and from September 1990, the DDBR was listed as a wetland of international importance especially as waterfowl habitat under the Ramsar Convention. The universal natural heritage value of the reserve was recognised in December 1990 by the inclusion of the strictly protected areas in the World Heritage List under the World Heritage Convention.Researchers consider that in an area of 3.466 km~2, that represent 1.5,% of the Romanian territory, live around 1/3 of all species of the Romanian flora (around 1.000 species).Many scientific papers present the flora of different types of habitats: sand dunes, salty areas, forests, swamps, fresh or salty water; also a great number of articles present the vegetation of the area, and the different vegetal associations. A great importance is now given to the alien species and on the other hand, to the rare and protected ones, in order to identify the endangered and periclitated species and to evaluate their status. Even though the terrestrial environment is present in the area, the predominance of the aquatic environment, led to the existence of a particular macrophytic flora. At the contact point of the sea-water and freshwater, it is understandable that particular physical, chemical and biological processes occur, and as a consequence researchers consider these coastal waters a special ecosystem, from which Musura Bay is one of the most representative.In this context, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the study of aquatic macrophytes, both submerged and floating flora that has been studied in previous years, and is a constant preoccupation of researchers. The present study took place over two years, between 2013-2014, and in each year a number of expeditions were made in different seasons, in order to observe the diverse flora and flora associations, because, due to seasonal variation in water quality, there might be a significantly seasonality of the vegetation also.The importance of the studies regarding flora of the Danube Delta, consist in the fact that the plants of these area are of social and economical importance, but also are very important for environmental conservation.