Global Ecological Roles and Model Networks of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Using AI-Aided Analysis

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), including freshwater macrophytes and marine seagrasses, is fundamental to global aquatic ecosystems, regulating carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles while providing key services such as water purification and carbon sequestration. Drawing on an AI-aided analysis of 219 ecosystems, we identified primary ecological functions of SAV: flow attenuation, sediment stabilization, nutrient retention, carbon storage, oxygen production, competition with other primary producers, food provision, and habitat refuge. This functional portfolio is strongly conserved across lakes and reservoirs, rivers and streams, palustrine wetlands, estuaries and brackish lagoons, and marine shelves (mean pairwise Bray–Curtis similarity = 0.924, range 0.883–0.958). In contrast, mechanistic understanding remains highly fragmented: process-based frameworks cluster by ecosystem type (modularity = 0.854), with only 5.7% reused beyond their original domain. Overall, these findings reveal both the similarity of SAV roles across ecosystems and the fragmented nature of process-based modeling, underlining the need for integrative strategies to connect ecological understanding and modeling efforts globally.

Presentation Preference: Standard Oral (12 Minutes)

Primary Presenter: Tianyu Fu, Tianjin University (futianyu@tju.edu.cn)

Authors:

Tianyu Fu, State Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Intelligent Construction and Operation, Tianjin University  (futianyu@tju.edu.cn)

Chen Zhang, State Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Intelligent Construction and Operation, Tianjin University  (emil@tju.edu.cn)

Sabine Hilt, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries  (sabine.hilt@igb-berlin.de)

Lingwei Chen, State Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Intelligent Construction and Operation, Tianjin University  (chen_wenny@tju.edu.cn)

Ruolan Yu, State Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Intelligent Construction and Operation, Tianjin University  (yuruolan@tju.edu.cn)

R. Woolway, School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University  (iestyn.woolway@bangor.ac.uk)

Michael Brett, University of Washington  (mtbrett@uw.edu)