Abiotic Factors Governing the Establishment and Expansion of Two Salt Marsh Plants in the Yangtze Estuary, China

Schwarz, Christian; Ysebaert, Tom; Zhu, Zhenchang; Zhang, Liquan; Bouma, Tjeerd J.; Herman, Peter M. J.

doi:10.1007/s13157-011-0212-5

Cited by 40 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Potentially, the superior wave energy attenuation of S. alterniflora alters other properties such as a greater sediment deposition that may facilitate its colonization and spread in this habitat and in other habitats where it has invaded. But also other biological traits (e.g., fast growth, well-developed belowground structures, high salt tolerance, great reproductive capacity through both clonal growth and sexual reproduction, timing of germination) make S. alterniflora a successful invader (Callaway and Josselyn 1992;Li et al 2009;Schwarz et al 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wave Attenuation by Two Contrasting Ecosystem Engineering Salt Marsh Macrophytes in the Intertidal Pioneer Zone

et al. 2011

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Tidal wetlands play an important role in dissipating hydrodynamic energy. Wave attenuation in vegetation depends on plant characteristics, as well as on hydrodynamic conditions. In the pioneer zone of salt marshes, species co-occur that differ widely in their growth strategies, and it is anticipated that these species act differently on incoming waves. In this field study we investigated, under different hydrodynamic forcing and tidal inundation levels, the wave attenuating capacity of two contrasting pioneer salt marsh species that co-occur in the Yangtze estuary, China. Our study shows that vegetation can reduce wave heights up to 80% over a relatively short distance (<50 m). Our results further indicate that Spartina alterniflora is able to reduce hydrodynamic energy from waves to a larger extent than Scirpus mariqueter, and therefore has a larger ecosystem engineering capacity (2.5× higher on average). A higher standing biomass of S. alterniflora explained its higher wave attenuation at low water depths. Being much taller compared to S. mariqueter, S. alterniflora also attenuated waves more with increasing water depth. We conclude that knowledge about the engineering properties of salt marsh species is important to better understand wave attenuation by tidal wetlands and their possible role in coastal protection.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wave Attenuation by Two Contrasting Ecosystem Engineering Salt Marsh Macrophytes in the Intertidal Pioneer Zone

et al. 2011

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“…April is the period when Spartina spp . seeds typically become active in the northern hemisphere (Schwarz et al , and personal field observations). Seeds were germinated in a climate chamber, which was kept at 25°C with 12 h d −1 light (550 μ mol m −2 s −1 Photosynthetic Active Radiation; PAR).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Light to the mesocosms was provided by suspended fluorescent tubes arranged in parallel over the tanks (Fig. b) with 12 h d −1 (550 μ mol m −2 s −1 PAR), and the temperature was thermostatically controlled in the climate room and maintained at 25°C during the day time and 18°C during night, which is approximately equivalent to the temperatures during seedling establishment in April and May at the field sites (Schwarz et al ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of sediment disturbance regimes onSpartinaseedling establishment: Implications for salt marsh creation and restoration

Cao

Zhu

Balke

et al. 2017

Limnology & Oceanography

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Seedling establishment is an important process relevant for the restoration of salt marsh within the framework of sustainable coastal defense schemes. Recent studies have increasingly highlighted how the short-term (i.e., the day-to-day) sediment dynamics can form major bottlenecks for seedling establishment. Until recently, studies on quantifying the threshold values of such short-term sediment dynamics for marsh seedlings remain rare. As accretion/erosion trends and dynamics may differ greatly under global change, we study the effects of short-term sediment disturbance-regimes on seedling establishment of two globally distributed foundation species: Spartina alterniflora and Spartina anglica. Seedlings with different disturbance-free periods were exposed to a set of different accretion/erosion-regimes in the laboratory. Seedling survival appeared to be much more sensitive to erosion than accretion, seedlings with short disturbance-free periods were more sensitive than seedlings with longer ones, and S. alterniflora was more sensitive than S. anglica. Seedlings were less sensitive to gradual changes in sediment height (accretion/erosion) than to abrupt changes where time for morphological adjustment is lacking. Critical erosion depth (the maximum erosion that seedlings are able to withstand) was shown to mainly depend on sedimentation history. Our results confirm that the establishment of Spartina seedlings requires a flooding disturbance-free "window of opportunity" and that sediment disturbances affect their survival both directly and via morphological adjustment. These results provide fundamental insights into seedling establishment that can be used for designing engineering measures to create suitable conditions and enable marsh creation/restoration for nature goals or as part of coastal defense schemes under global change.

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“…plant height, density, stiffness) and physiological (e.g. stress tolerance) plant properties potentially influencing the proliferation (Chen et al, 2004;Li et al, 2009;Schwarz et al, 2011).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the potential of plant species invasion influencing bio‐geomorphologic landscape formation in salt marshes

Schwarz

Ysebaert

Vandenbruwaene

et al. 2016

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Species invasions are known to change biotic and abiotic ecosystem characteristics such as community structure, cycling of materials and dynamics of rivers. However, their ability to alter interactions between biotic and abiotic ecosystem components, in particular bio-geomorphic feedbacks and the resulting landscape configuration in tidal wetlands, such as tidal channels have not yet been demonstrated. We studied the impact of altered bio-geomorphic feedbacks on geomorphologic features (i.e. tidal wetland channels), by comparing proxies for channel network geometry (unchanneled flow lengths, fractal dimension) over time between non-invaded and invaded salt marsh habitats. The non-invaded habitats (the south of eastern Chongming Island, Yangtze estuary, China) show little change in network geometry over time with a tendency for an increased drainage density. The invaded site (salt marshes in the north of eastern Chongming Island invaded by the exotic plant species Spartina alterniflora) showed a decreasing tendency in channel drainage density throughout and after the species invasion. This suggests that species invasions might not only affect biotic ecosystem characteristics, but also their ability to change bio-geomorphic feedback loops, potentially leading to changes in existing geomorphologic features and therefore landscape configuration. Our results further suggest that the species invasion also altered sediment composition. Based on observations we propose a mechanism explaining the change in channel drainage density by an alteration in plant properties. The physical and physiological characteristics of the invading species Spartina alterniflora clearly differ from the native species Scirpus mariqueter, inducing different bio-geomorphic feedback loops leading to the observed change in salt marsh channel configuration.

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Abiotic Factors Governing the Establishment and Expansion of Two Salt Marsh Plants in the Yangtze Estuary, China

Cited by 40 publications

References 36 publications

Wave Attenuation by Two Contrasting Ecosystem Engineering Salt Marsh Macrophytes in the Intertidal Pioneer Zone

Wave Attenuation by Two Contrasting Ecosystem Engineering Salt Marsh Macrophytes in the Intertidal Pioneer Zone

Effects of sediment disturbance regimes onSpartinaseedling establishment: Implications for salt marsh creation and restoration

On the potential of plant species invasion influencing bio‐geomorphologic landscape formation in salt marshes

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