The study focused on the relationships between charophytes and the surrounding species composition and environmental factors in a lowland stream (Flinta stream, Western Poland). A total of 32 vegetation plots (4 m × 4 m) and 13 environmental variables were tested. Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were used to describe the relationships between the species composition and the selected variables. Dominance curves of aquatic plants, response curves (GAMs model) of charophytes and other macrophytes to the velocity gradient (the most important environmental factor, the Monte Carlo test) were prepared. In this study, 2 species of charophytes were recorded: Chara vulgaris and Chara globularis and 5 other co-occurring macroscopic algae, 2 mosses and 10 vascular plants. In the studied stream, charophytes occupied the separate niche. Chara vulgaris stands with moss vegetation were found in stream sections with the highest velocity of the water current (0.29 m s-1 mean), and the Chara globularis (with dominant Potamogeton species), preferred sections with the smallest water current velocity (0.19 m s-1 mean). Charophytes seem to respond to ecological gradients differently from mosses and vascular plants. These differences are related to current velocity, pH, conductivity and organic matter in bottom sediments, and to the niche differentiation associated with them.
Regarding their distribution in lakes, Chara delicatula and Chara globularis are considered species of different or even opposite ecological requirements. C. delicatula is usually reported from oligotrophic lakes, but C. globularis from more fertile ones. Within Poland, both species rarely build extensive stands in the same ecosystem. The present study was carried out in a stratified, mid-forest lake in midwestern Poland where C. delicatula had not been found earlier. Based on the physical-chemical properties and analyses of phytoplankton, a transitional, meso-eutrophic status of the lake was stated. In the group of 15 more frequent macrophyte species, C. delicatula and C. globularis were among plants predominating the lake’s macrovegetation. Both stoneworts built separate patches as well as contributed to other macrophyte assemblages. Growing under the same light and trophic conditions, the species revealed differences in ecological optima in relation to the depth of occurrence and bottom slope. The results are discussed in the context of the species identity: are C. delicatula and C. globularis separate species or forms within the same taxon?