Salinity Influences on Aboveground and Belowground Net Primary Productivity in Tidal Wetlands

Pierfelice, Kathryn; Lockaby, B. Graeme; Krauss, Ken W.; Conner, William H.; Noe, Gregory B.; Ricker, Matthew C.

doi:10.1061/(asce)he.1943-5584.0001223

Cited by 35 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Vasquez et al () reported a decreasing trend in both aboveground and belowground biomass of Spartina with increasing salinity from 0.57 to 34 ppt over a period of 3 months. High salinity affects the leaf chlorophyll content, protein synthesis, and lipid metabolism of marsh plants—resulting in overall decreased productivity (Mateos‐Naranjo et al, ; Parida & Das, ; Pierfelice et al, ). The salinity impacts could be linked to the accumulation of phytotoxic substances (e.g., hydrogen sulfide, H 2 S) in anaerobic wetland sediments (Bradley & Morris, ), with both salinity and phytotoxin concentrations increasing when intensity of tidal flushing is relatively low.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Controls, Emergent Scaling, and Predictions of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Fluxes in Coastal Salt Marshes

et al. 2018

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Coastal salt marshes play an important role in mitigating global warming by removing atmospheric carbon at a high rate. We investigated the environmental controls and emergent scaling of major greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes such as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) in coastal salt marshes by conducting data analytics and empirical modeling. The underlying hypothesis is that the salt marsh GHG fluxes follow emergent scaling relationships with their environmental drivers, leading to parsimonious predictive models. CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), air and soil temperatures, well water level, soil moisture, and porewater pH and salinity were measured during May-October 2013 from four marshes in Waquoit Bay and adjacent estuaries, MA, USA. The salt marshes exhibited high CO 2 uptake and low CH 4 emission, which did not significantly vary with the nitrogen loading gradient (5-126 kg · ha À1 · year À1 ) among the salt marshes. Soil temperature was the strongest driver of both fluxes, representing 2 and 4-5 times higher influence than PAR and salinity, respectively. Well water level, soil moisture, and pH did not have a predictive control on the GHG fluxes, although both fluxes were significantly higher during high tides than low tides. The results were leveraged to develop emergent power law-based parsimonious scaling models to accurately predict the salt marsh GHG fluxes from PAR, soil temperature, and salinity (Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency = 0.80-0.91). The scaling models are available as a user-friendly Excel spreadsheet named Coastal Wetland GHG Model to explore scenarios of GHG fluxes in tidal marshes under a changing climate and environment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Controls, Emergent Scaling, and Predictions of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Fluxes in Coastal Salt Marshes

et al. 2018

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“…in Malaysia (a member of the Myrtaceae family [117]) and Pterocarpus officinalis in Puerto Rico (a member of the Fabaceae family [118]), species of palms in Puerto Rico floodplains [119], and hardwood species assemblages [120]. These swamps are increasingly exposed to flooding and saltwater intrusion caused by sea level rise that result in decreased growth and increased mortality due to anoxia and salinity stress [121][122][123]. Bald cypress can tolerate salinity of 3 to 6 ppt through osmotic adjustments [124], but its basal area was halved by a chronic salinity increase from 0.7 to 1.3 ppt over a year (from 87 m 2 ha −1 to 40 m 2 ha −1 [101]).…”

Section: Treesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Do We Need to Document and Conserve Foundation Species in Freshwater Wetlands?

Marazzi

Gaiser

Eppinga

et al. 2019

Water

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Foundation species provide habitat to other organisms and enhance ecosystem functions, such as nutrient cycling, carbon storage and sequestration, and erosion control. We focus on freshwater wetlands because these ecosystems are often characterized by foundation species; eutrophication and other environmental changes may cause the loss of some of these species, thus severely damaging wetland ecosystems. To better understand how wetland primary producer foundation species support other species and ecosystem functions across environmental gradients, we reviewed ~150 studies in subtropical, boreal, and temperate freshwater wetlands. We look at how the relative dominance of conspicuous and well-documented species (i.e., sawgrass, benthic diatoms and cyanobacteria, Sphagnum mosses, and bald cypress) and the foundational roles they play interact with hydrology, nutrient availability, and exposure to fire and salinity in representative wetlands. Based on the evidence analyzed, we argue that the foundation species concept should be more broadly applied to include organisms that regulate ecosystems at different spatial scales, notably the microscopic benthic algae that critically support associated communities and mediate freshwater wetlands’ ecosystem functioning. We give recommendations on how further research efforts can be prioritized to best inform the conservation of foundation species and of the freshwater wetlands they support.

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“…Light et al (2002) found that baldcypress, swamp tupelo, and water tupelo were the most dominant canopy species in forested tidal sections of Suwannee River, FL. Duberstein and Kitchens (2007) and Pierfelice et al (2015) examined the influence of tide on edaphic conditions showing it to be an important factor affecting species composition and productivity.…”

Section: Effect Of Water Salinity On Overstory Forest Communitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest composition and growth in a freshwater forested wetland community across a salinity gradient in South Carolina, USA

Liu

Conner

Song

et al. 2017

Forest Ecology and Management

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Tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFW) of the southeastern United States are experiencing increased saltwater intrusion mainly due to sea-level rise. Inter-annual and intra-annual variability in forest productivity along a salinity gradient was studied on established sites.Aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) of trees was monitored from 2013 to 2015 on three sites within a baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) swamp forest ecosystem in Strawberry Swamp on Hobcaw Barony, Georgetown County, South Carolina. Paired plots (20 × 25-m) were established along a water salinity gradient (0.8, 2.6, 4.6 PSU). Salinity was continuously monitored, litterfall was measured monthly, and growth of overstory trees ≥10 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) was monitored on an annual basis. Annual litterfall and stem wood growth were summed to estimate ANPP. The DBH of live and dead individuals of understory shrubs were measured to calculate density, basal area (BA), and important values (IV). Freshwater forest communities clearly differed in composition, structure, tree size, BA, and productivity across the salinity gradient. The higher salinity plots had decreased numbers of tree species, density, and BA. Higher salinity reduced average ANPP. The dominant tree species and their relative densities did not change along the salinity gradient, but the dominance of the primary tree species differed with increasing salinity. Baldcypress was the predominant tree species with highest density, DBH, BA, IV, and contribution to total ANPP on all sites. Mean growth rate of baldcypress trees decreased with increasing salinity, but exhibited the greatest growth among all tree species. While the overall number of shrub species decreased with increasing salinity, wax myrtle (Morella cerifera) density, DBH, BA, and IV increased with salinity. With rising sea level and increasing salinity levels, low regeneration of baldcypress, and the invasion of wax myrtle, typical successional patterns in TFFW and forest health are likely to change in the future.

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Salinity Influences on Aboveground and Belowground Net Primary Productivity in Tidal Wetlands

Cited by 35 publications

References 48 publications

Environmental Controls, Emergent Scaling, and Predictions of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Fluxes in Coastal Salt Marshes

Environmental Controls, Emergent Scaling, and Predictions of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Fluxes in Coastal Salt Marshes

Why Do We Need to Document and Conserve Foundation Species in Freshwater Wetlands?

Forest composition and growth in a freshwater forested wetland community across a salinity gradient in South Carolina, USA

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