Plant trait-environment trends and their conservation implications for riparian wetlands in the Yellow River

Hong, Zhendong; Ding, Shengyan; Zhao, Qinghe; Qiu, Pengwei; Chang, Jinlong; Li, Peng; Wang, Shuoqian; Hong, Yongyi; Liu, Gangjun

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144867

Cited by 21 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…Moreover, the concentrations found within the lagoon can be attributed to the agricultural activities carried out within about 2 km of the catchment, where fertilisers are applied for vegetable farming. These results confirm the findings of Sun et al ( 2017) cited in Hong et al (2021), where they found that reduced river flows into the Yellow River downstream affected cadmium concentrations in the river. Again, the findings confirm the results of Shanbehzadeh et al (2014) who conducted a study of the Tembi River and reported that the evaporation of water and the dry season cause a concentration increase of heavy metals such as cadmium in the river.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Analysis of ecological health status of the Muni Lagoon: Evidence from heavy metal content in its water and fish samples

Okyere

Adu‐Boahen

Boateng³

et al. 2023

Geography and Environment

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The study examined the ecological health status of the Muni lagoon amidst increasing development in and around its catchment using a concentration of heavy metals in its water and fish samples as a proxy. Flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer (FAAS) laboratory analysis was employed to determine heavy metals (cadmium [Cd], lead [Pb], iron [Fe], manganese [Mn] and zinc) present in water and fish samples within the Muni Lagoon. The study revealed that the Muni Lagoon and feeder rivers were polluted with heavy metals (Fe = 0.453, Cd = 0.201, Mn = 0.105 and Pb = 0.024) comparing their concentrations with the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Water Resources Commission (WRC) limit. Fish within the lagoon were found to pose no harm to consumers as traces of heavy metal concentrations were below the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations/World Health Organisation maximum permissible limit. The study further revealed that the application of agricultural inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides and domestic waste as well as unregulated gutter channels were the major source of heavy metals. A paired sample t-test showed a statistically significant difference between the wet and dry season's concentrations of cadmium and lead. For cadmium, the t-test found t(5) = −7.265; p = .001 between the wet season's concentration and the dry season's concentration and for lead, the t-test found t( 5) = 5.061, p = .004 between the wet and dry season concentrations in the lagoon. It is therefore recommended that the Forestry Commission, Municipal Assembly and the local leaders should collaborate in regulating activities occurring in and around the catchment of the lagoon.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Analysis of ecological health status of the Muni Lagoon: Evidence from heavy metal content in its water and fish samples

Okyere

Adu‐Boahen

Boateng³

et al. 2023

Geography and Environment

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“…Generally, we found that environmental factors (mainly five soil factors and two topographical factors) affected the distribution characteristics of the functional communities in the watershed, and that PFTs responded differently to different environmental factors. On one hand, the external environmental ecosystem context is influenced by agricultural intensification, land use types, and forest management measures (Hong et al, 2021; Roy et al, 2019; Zhang, Yu, et al, 2021). On the other hand, it also depends on the multi‐directional transformation of biomass, biodiversity, and functional types caused by internal environmental factors (e.g., vegetation phenological features, ecological adaptability, and community succession) (Adams et al, 2021; Li, Shi, Zhao, & Wu, 2022; Li, Yang, & Wang, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional vegetation community responses to soil and topographic factors in the Loess Plateau of China

Zhang

Zha

et al. 2023

Land Degrad Dev

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Given the developmental program outlined in United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15 (Life on Land) and the to effectively address the challenge of biodiversity decline while mitigating the adverse effects of climate change, particularly drought, on terrestrial forest ecosystems, a fundamental reorientation of global forest restoration paradigms is warranted. It is imperative to move beyond a narrow emphasis on expanding forest area and instead prioritize the enhancement of biodiversity and functional attributes within these ecosystems. However, the differential response mechanisms of forest ecosystem functional communities and main plant functional types (PFTs) to environmental factors, especially soil and topography, remains unclear, especially at plant level. Here, we divided the functional communities of 93 sites in the study area into seven groups through Two‐way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN), and studied the different functional communities, namely dynamic succession, species richness, and PFT compositional differences. We also analyzed the various PFTs and functional community response mechanisms to soil and topographic factors using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). The main results were as follows: (1) With the successional stages of PFTs, vegetation diversity across multiple functional communities inceased, tree and shrub proportions and importance increased, while herbs decreased. (2) From the arid and barren areas (i.e., G2), to the humid and fertile areas (i.e., G6 and G7), various compositional PFT differences, and their responses to soil and topographic factors, were found, namely, xerophytic, annual and biennial species gradually changed to mesophytic, hygrophytic, and perennial species (richness increased 6.94 ~ 27.33%, important value (IV) increased 8.73 ~ 29.45%) for shrubs and herbs. (3) Functional communities in various successional stages display distinct sensitivities to soil and topographic factors, as evidenced by a notable increase in the richness and IV of deciduous broad‐leaved tree species, rendering their communities more responsive to SOC and AS, whereas evergreen coniferous trees (e.g., Pinus tabuliformis Carr.) were sensitive to altitude (AL) and exhibited a tendency to transition from plantations to natural secondary forests predominantly at higher altitudes (above 1200 m). Our findings suggest that site conditions influence scenarios, and that different PFT responses and adjustments to soil and topography factors affect whole functional community dynamic succession processes, which can profoundly impact forest ecosystem function predictions based on PFT changes in the Loess Plateau of China.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Plant functional traits have strong associations with many habitat conditions and have been widely used in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems at a range of spatial and temporal scales (Delatorre, da Cunha, Rodrigues, Damasceno-Júnior, & Ferreira, 2019;Hong et al, 2021;Shipley et al, 2016). However, this is the first study to our knowledge Common species in our study included P. hybridus, P. arundinacea, E. hirsutum with lesser occurrences of M. scorpioides; all these plants can survive both dry and flowing conditions due to adaptations involving root allocation (Lavergne & Molofsky, 2004), leaf morphology and mass (Sabater et al, 2017) and rhizomes (Nilsson & D'Hertefeldt, 2008;van Groenendael, Klimeš, Klimešová, & Hendriks, 1996), which was the most dominant clonal trait within the communities.…”

Section: Plant Functional Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonisation of terrestrial vegetation in an intermittent river: Diversity responses to seasonal drying

Milner

Dutton

Hayes

2022

River Research & Apps

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Intermittent rivers are dynamic ecosystems that experience a predictable or unpredictable loss of surface water and are characterised by changing lotic, lentic (ponding) and dry habitats. Plant communities colonising dry channels during the desiccation stage can be diverse, abundant and differ in their tolerances to water availability and habitat conditions. This study examines the colonisation of terrestrial vegetation in two intermittent rivers in the United Kingdom, and whether terrestrial plant taxonomic richness and functional diversity increase during the dry phase. Six reaches were surveyed for terrestrial plants during the dry phase over a standard 100 m length every month from April to October 2021. We found the channel and bank taxonomic richness increased with drying duration. Functional traits of vegetation height, clonality, clonality richness and Ellenberg's value of light moisture also increased with stream desiccation. Bed sediment conditions (the proportion of sand and gravel) and the 12-month antecedent percentage of zero flow days were the key drivers of plant community composition. We believe plant propagules from the riparian zone and channel vegetation on topographic high points in the channel aided plant colonisation of the riverbed once flow ceased. Past research may have underestimated the biodiversity value of intermittent rivers by failing to include the ecological importance of plants during the dry phase. Information on plant diversity of the dry phase is important to determine the overall biodiversity of intermittent rivers for their long-term conservation and management.

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Plant trait-environment trends and their conservation implications for riparian wetlands in the Yellow River

Cited by 21 publications

References 118 publications

Analysis of ecological health status of the Muni Lagoon: Evidence from heavy metal content in its water and fish samples

Analysis of ecological health status of the Muni Lagoon: Evidence from heavy metal content in its water and fish samples

Functional vegetation community responses to soil and topographic factors in the Loess Plateau of China

Colonisation of terrestrial vegetation in an intermittent river: Diversity responses to seasonal drying

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