Using as an environmental-friendly alternative to for the aquaculture of Chinese mitten crab.

is widely used in Chinese mitten crab (CMC) rearing practice, but it is not a native aquatic plant and cannot endure high temperature. Thus, large mortality and water deterioration events could occur during high-temperature seasons. The aim of this study was to identify the use of local macrophytes in CMC rearing practice, including and . A completely randomized field experiment was conducted to investigate the crab yield, water quality, bacterioplankton community and functions in the three different systems (, , and ). Average crab yields in the different macrophyte systems did not differ significantly. The and systems significantly decreased the total nitrogen and nitrate-N quantities in the outflow waters during the rearing period compared to the system, and the and plants assimilated more nitrogen than the plant. Moreover, the significant changes of bacterioplankton abundances and biodiversity in the three systems implied that cleanliness of rearing waters was concomitantly attributed to the differential microbial community and functions. In addition, principle component analysis successfully differentiated the bacterioplankton communities of the three macrophytes systems. Environmental factor fitting and the co-occurrence network analyses indicated that pH was the driver of bacterioplankton community structure. Functional predictions using PICRUSt (v.1.1.3) software based on evolutionary modeling indicated a higher potential for microbial denitrification in the and systems. Notably, the plants stopped growing in the middle of the rearing period. Thus, the system rather than the system could be a feasible and environmental-friendly alternative to the system in CMC rearing practice.