Rainfall variation shifts habitat suitability for seedling establishment associated with tidal inundation in salt marshes

Xie, Tian; Li, Shanze; Cui, Baoshan; Bai, Junhong; Shi, Wei

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.11.056

Cited by 25 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…There was only one interval that contained no precipitation, which was in early May before germination had initiated (Figs. 2 and 3) (Noe and Zedler 2001;Xie et al 2019). From Salicornia europaea, Salicornia bigelovii and Salicornia virginica, it is known that fresh water input (i.e.…”

Section: Temperature and Precipitation Promote Germinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…precipitation) stimulates seedling germination and establishment (Carter and Ungar 2003;Noe and Zedler 2001;Zedler et al 2003). Rainfall can affect soil conditions dually, decreasing soil salinity while increasing soil moisture (Noe and Zedler 2001;Xie et al 2019), which both can increase germination success. In dry years and/or in areas where precipitation has reduced or shifted, the impact of precipitation is expected to be larger (Noe and Zedler 2001;Strain et al 2017;Xie et al 2019).…”

Section: Temperature and Precipitation Promote Germinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Salt marsh seeds and seedlings need to be able to germinate and survive in a dynamic environment. In earlier studies, the effect of one or two particular parameters on germination and survival of intertidal pioneer vegetation was often studied in laboratory experiments: including sediment dynamics (Boorman et al 2001;Cao et al 2018), inundation regime (Boorman et al 2001;Egan and Ungar 2000), salinity (Keiffer et al 1994), rainfall (Xie et al 2019), temperature (Khan et al 2000;Ungar 1967), and/or bioturbation (van Regteren et al 2017;Zhu et al 2016). Field experiments are much scarcer, but are important as they can provide valuable information on realistic combinations of these environmental parameters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Establishment of Salicornia spp. is influenced by multiple environmental variables, and synergistic (or antagonistic) effects between environmental variables may occur (Keiffer et al 1994;Ungar 1978;Xie et al 2019). An inundationfree period of at least 2 days is essential to initiate germination (Wiehe 1935).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Air temperature is a key factor, and low temperatures prevent seeds from germinating in winter (Khan et al 2000), whereas higher temperatures stimulate germination (Ungar 1967). Rainfall increases germination success and seedling survival, by both increasing soil moisture and reducing soil salinity (Noe and Zedler 2001;Xie et al 2019). Successful establishment can also be impeded by centimetrescale bed-level variation in several ways: (1) winter storms erode the surface layer including newly dispersed seeds, reducing seed availability in spring (van Regteren et al 2019), (2) high sedimentation and erosion rates in the initial life stages lead to increased perennial seedling mortality Cao et al 2018), and (3) erosion of the soil will wash away seedlings due to insufficient root anchorage (Houwing 2000;Smit van der Waaij et al 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multiple Environmental Variables Affect Germination and Mortality of an Annual Salt Marsh Pioneer: Salicornia procumbens

Regteren

Meesters

Baptist

et al. 2020

Estuaries and Coasts

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Salt marshes, providing numerous ecosystem services, are degrading worldwide. To effectively aid conservation and restoration efforts, increased knowledge on marsh expansion processes and the initial establishment of pioneer vegetation is essential. In this study, we disentangle environmental drivers that affect the lifecycle of the annual pioneer Salicornia procumbens at the salt marsh edge. We studied the effect of various environmental variables on the start of germination, germination success and mortality before seed-set in a field experiment in the Dutch Wadden Sea at Westhoek. Our results indicate that temperature and sedimentation inhibited the initiation of germination. Once germination occurred, higher precipitation rates increased germination success. In contrast, sedimentation rates above 0.5 mm day −1 halved germination success through burial of freshly sprouted seedlings. Unexpectedly, natural germination was low, indicating that seed availability may have been limited, despite a seed source nearby. Frequent inundation, extended periods without inundation (through desiccation of the soil) and a highly dynamic bed level increased mortality before seed-set. Consequently, bed-level dynamics (erosion, sedimentation and bed-level variation) impact seed production dually (decrease germination and increase mortality) and thus potentially reproduction success. A high seed reproduction is crucial for annuals, such as S. procumbens, to re-establish the following year. Next to advancing our general knowledge of natural salt marsh expansion, results in this study can also be used to assess the potential of a given site for salt marsh stimulation or restoration. Seed availability and local bedlevel dynamics are key in the successful establishment of a salt marsh pioneer: Salicornia procumbens.

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Section: Temperature and Precipitation Promote Germinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Temperature and Precipitation Promote Germinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Multiple Environmental Variables Affect Germination and Mortality of an Annual Salt Marsh Pioneer: Salicornia procumbens

Regteren

Meesters

Baptist

et al. 2020

Estuaries and Coasts

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Tidal frequencies and quasiperiodic subsurface water level variations dominate redox dynamics in a salt marsh system

Grande

Arora

Visser

et al. 2022

Hydrological Processes

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Salt marshes are hotspots of nutrient processing en route to sensitive coastal environments. Whilst our understanding of these systems has improved over the years, we still have limited knowledge of the spatiotemporal variability of critical biogeochemical drivers within salt marshes. Sea‐level rise will continue to force change on salt marsh functioning, highlighting the urgency of filling this knowledge gap. Our study was conducted in a central California estuary experiencing extensive marsh drowning and relative sea‐level rise, making it a model system for such an investigation. Here we instrumented three marsh positions subjected to different degrees of tidal inundation (6.7%, 8.9%, and 11.2% of the time for the upper, middle, and lower marsh positions, respectively), providing locations with varied biogeochemical characteristics and hydrological interactions at the site. We continuously monitored redox potential (Eh) at depths of 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 m, subsurface water levels (WL), and temperature at 0.7 m depth at each marsh position. To understand how drivers of subsurface biogeochemical processes fluctuate across tidal cycles, we used wavelet analyses to explain the interactions between Eh and WL. We found that tidal forcing significantly affects key drivers of biogeochemical processes by imparting controls on Eh variability, likely driving subsurface hydro‐biogeochemistry of the salt marsh. Wavelet coherence showed that the Eh‐WL relationship is nonlinear, and their lead–lag relationship is variable. We found that precipitation events perturb Eh at depth over timescales of hours, even though WL shows relatively minimal change during events. This work highlights the importance of high frequency in situ measurements, such as Eh, to help explain factors that govern subsurface biogeochemistry and hydrological processes in salt marshes.

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Insights from Observations and Manipulative Experiments into Competition Between Mangroves and Salt Marsh Vegetation

Hockaday

Armitage

Pennings

2023

Estuaries and Coasts

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Ecologists use multiple methods for studying interspecific competition, but different approaches may give different answers. We compared four methods to quantify the competitive interactions between Avicennia germinans (black mangroves) and salt marsh vegetation in Texas, USA: two different methods of sampling a large (24 x 42 m) mangrove removal experiment, a transplant experiment conducted within the large experiment, and an observational study comparing sites naturally dominated by marsh or mangrove vegetation. As expected, mangroves strongly suppressed the cover and biomass of salt marsh plants. But our understanding of the strength of these interactions varied depending on the study method used, the plant species studied, and the spatial scale considered; different processes influencing community assembly. The transplant experiment isolated the effects of competition driven only by the presence or absence of mangroves in the immediate (3x3 m plot) vicinity of the transplanted plants. In contrast, the observational study examined the combined effects of dispersal, abiotic suitability and competition as a function of the cover of mangroves at the larger plot scale. Combining the approaches in areas with levels of mangrove cover varying from 45% to 97% provided insight into how results from the local scale could be extrapolated to the landscape. Although mangroves may compete strongly with neighboring marsh plants growing in their immediate vicinity, marsh plants may not be totally eradicated from sites colonized by mangroves, but instead may persist on the landscape at low densities in stressful habitats that offer a refuge from competition.

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Rainfall variation shifts habitat suitability for seedling establishment associated with tidal inundation in salt marshes

Cited by 25 publications

References 47 publications

Multiple Environmental Variables Affect Germination and Mortality of an Annual Salt Marsh Pioneer: Salicornia procumbens

Multiple Environmental Variables Affect Germination and Mortality of an Annual Salt Marsh Pioneer: Salicornia procumbens

Tidal frequencies and quasiperiodic subsurface water level variations dominate redox dynamics in a salt marsh system

Insights from Observations and Manipulative Experiments into Competition Between Mangroves and Salt Marsh Vegetation

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