Can anyone help?!? How do freshwater plants prevent rotting? and how would they prevent damage to their struct

Question

gotta design a plant for bio class...how would a freshwater pond plant get enough co2 and other stuff to photosynthesize? Basically can anyone help me design a plant that can live in fresh water through winters that freeze and doesnt rot?

Answer 1

CO2 is absorbed from the atmosphere as well as oxygen.  And if there are fish in the pond with the plant, they will produce CO2 as a byproduct of their respiration.  Even plants give off CO2 at night when there's no light for photosynthesis.

If a pond is deep enough, it won't freeze solid to the bottom, so the water at the bottom of a deeper pond stays around 4oC/39oF.  But it the top freezes, the plant won't get as much light though the opaque ice.  You would also have to think about the enzymes which control the plant's metabolism, since enzymes are only functional in a limited temperature range.  So you have problems of depth, cold, and decreased light working against you.

What most "real world" plants will do is to allow the leaves to die and overwinter by storing some food energy for the next growing season in a thick root.  The root is buried in the muck at the bottom of the pond which has some insulating properties to keep them from freezing.  Or, they are annuals which produce seed before winter and the seeds germinate the next year when it warm enough to produce new plants.