Q.Why do submerged plants receive weak illumination than exposed floating plants in a lake?
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Step 1. Floating leaves (as in rooted-floating hydrophytes like Nymphaea, or free-floating ones like Eichhornia/Pistia) sit directly at the water's surface, in the same position as a terrestrial leaf, receiving sunlight at essentially full, unfiltered intensity.
Step 2. Submerged leaves, by contrast (as in submerged hydrophytes like Hydrilla, Vallisneria or Ceratophyllum), are positioned some depth below the surface, so light must first travel down through a column of water before reaching them.
Step 3. Water absorbs and scatters light as it passes through — the deeper the leaf, the more of the light's original intensity has already been absorbed or scattered before it arrives, so submerged leaves receive progressively weaker illumination the deeper they sit, and certain wavelengths are filtered out faster than others. …
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