Broad-scale studies of species distributions and diversity have contributed to the emergence of general macroecological rules. These rules are typically founded on research using well-known terrestrial taxa as models and it is thus uncertain whether aquatic macrophytes follow these macroecological rules. Our purpose is to draw together available information from broad-scale research on aquatic macrophytes growing in lakes, ponds, wetlands, rivers and streams. We summarize how different macroecological rules fit the patterns shown by freshwater plants at various spatial scales. Finally, we outline future actions which should be taken to advance macroecological research on freshwater plants. Our review suggested that some macroecological patterns are relatively well-evidenced for aquatic macrophytes, whereas little information exists for others. We found, for example, that the species richness-latitude relationship follows a unimodal pattern, and species turnover prevails over species nestedness, whereas higher nestedness-related richness differences are found in low beta diversity regions. Contrary to terrestrial plants, climate or history seem not to be dominant determinants explaining these broad-scale patterns; instead local explanatory variables (e.g., water quality, such as alkalinity and nutrients, and hydromorphology) are often important for freshwater plants. We identified several knowledge gaps related, for example, to a smaller number of studies in lotic habitats, compared with lentic habitats, lack of spatially-adequate aquatic plant studies, deficiency of comprehensive species traits databases for aquatic macrophytes, and absence of a true phylogeny comprising most freshwater plant lineages. We hope this review will encourage the undertaking of additional macroecological investigations on freshwater plants across broad spatial and temporal scales.

物种分布和多样性的大规模研究促进了一般宏观生态学规则的出现。这些规则通常建立在以著名的陆生类群为模型的研究基础上，因此不确定水生植物是否遵循这些宏观生态学规则。我们的目的是收集有关在湖泊，池塘，湿地，河流和溪流中生长的水生植物的大规模研究的可用信息。我们总结了不同的宏观生态学规律如何适应淡水植物在各种空间尺度上显示的模式。最后，我们概述了今后应采取的行动，以促进淡水植物的宏观生态学研究。我们的综述表明，对于水生大型植物，某些宏观生态学模式是相对充分的证据，而对于其他物种，则几乎没有信息。例如，我们发现，物种丰富度与纬度的关系遵循单峰模式，物种更新优于物种嵌套，而在低β多样性区域中发现了更高的嵌套相关性丰富度差异。与陆生植物相反，气候或历史似乎不是解释这些大范围模式的主要决定因素。取而代之的是，当地的解释变量（例如，水质，例如碱度和养分以及水形态）对于淡水植物通常很重要。我们发现了一些知识空白，例如与轮虫栖息地相比，在抽水栖息地进行的研究数量较少，缺乏足够的水生植物研究空间，缺乏水生植物综合物种特征数据库，并且没有包含大多数淡水植物谱系的真实系统发育史。我们希望这次审查会鼓励对广泛的时空尺度的淡水植物进行更多的宏观生态学调查。