Limited Response of Cordgrass (Spartina Foliosa) To Soil Amendments in a Constructed Marsh

Abstract

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The Pace of Ecosystem Development of Constructed Spartina Alterniflora Marshes

“…Nitrogen additions stim?llare FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE growth of Spartina foliosa, but annual additions are There is much interest in identifying indicators or needed to maintain tall stems and high levels of bioperformance criteria that can be used to assess func-mass (Boyer and Zedler 1998). Gibson et al (1994) tional and structural equivalence of wetland creation added 1500 g Clm2 and up 107 g N/m2 as alfalfa plus and restoration projects (Streever 2000, National Re-ammonium sulfate to accelerate ecosystem developsearch Council 2001, Zedler 2001. The ideal indicator ment of S. foliosa marshes.…”

Restoration of Wetland Environments: Lessons and Successes

“…Sweetwater Marsh was constructed to create habitat for several endangered species, including the light-footed clapper rail (Rallus longirostris levipes). One of the major problems with this restored wetland was that the grass that was established did not grow as tall as expected due to the low nutrient status of the coarse, sandy substrate (Zedler 1993;Gibson et al 1994). Because of the low stature of the vegetation, the light-footed clapper rail was not attracted to the site (Malakoff 1998).…”

Impacts and interactions of multiple human perturbations in a California salt marsh

“…In addition, hydrological manipulations, such as diking to reduce tidal inundation, may modify the physical and chemical properties of the microsites opened by trampling. This may alter soil properties in favor of less salt-tolerant upland plants and reduce salt marsh vegetation productivity (Zedler et al 1980;Gibson et al 1994), further facilitating the establishment of invasive species and loss of salt marsh vegetation. We also examined patterns of recovery from trampling, a pulse disturbance, with the expectation that resilience in response to one disturbance may be aVected by exposure to other perturbations.…”

“…Nutrient inputs have been shown to facilitate invasion of plant communities (Hester and Hobbs 1992;Bertness et al 2002), particularly in combination with soil disturbance (Hobbs and Atkins 1988 (Boyer and Zedler 1999;Boyer et al 2001), suggesting that nutrient limitation could drive community dynamics and that increasing nutrients should have promoted establishment of non-native upland plants. These inconsistencies could be due to the short temporal period and timing of our treatment application, as well as the soil properties in Elkhorn Slough marshes (Gibson et al 1994;Zedler 1996;Boyer et al 2001). We added nitrogen only during the summer months, so the eVects of nutrient enrichment on the plant community may not have lasted to the following spring, possibly due to insuYcient storage of nitrogen in belowground tissues or soils (Boyer and Zedler 1998;Lindig-Cisneros et al 2003).…”

“…We added nitrogen only during the summer months, so the eVects of nutrient enrichment on the plant community may not have lasted to the following spring, possibly due to insuYcient storage of nitrogen in belowground tissues or soils (Boyer and Zedler 1998;Lindig-Cisneros et al 2003). Thus, short-term nutrient enrichment initially increased the biomass of S. paciWca, but did not necessarily enhance the nitrogen pool for nonnative upland plants during their growing season (Gibson et al 1994;Zedler 1996;Boyer et al 2001;Boyer and Zedler 1998;Lindig-Cisneros et al 2003). Application of nitrogen through the upland plant growing season may produce diVerent results.…”