Salinization, inundation and tree mortality interact to affect greenhouse gas emissions from stressed coastal forests

Seyfried, Georgia S.; Chow, Alex T.; O’Halloran, T. L.

doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2023.109101

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 67 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Sulfidation, another result of seawater exposure in wetlands, is also harmful to many taxa, but may be of less concern in some iron rich soils, such as those in Eastern North Carolina [ 16 ]. Additionally, there are plant-soil feedbacks that indirectly affect ecosystem responses to salinization and have not been well studied in freshwater wetlands [ 17 ]. Both vegetation and edaphic factors may mediate the effect of salinity on soil microbial functions, effects that are difficult to study in a laboratory setting or small field studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vegetation may play an important role in the mediation of salinization effects on soil carbon processing but is often left out of experimental design for sake of reducing study complexity. Studies that do include vegetation are typically conducted in salt marshes or in mesocosms with herbaceous plants, occasionally saplings, but seldom if ever, with full grown trees [ 17 ]. To date, no large-scale, long-term field salinization experiments have been conducted in forested freshwater wetlands, despite these ecosystems being highly vulnerable to coastal change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Restored forested wetland surprisingly resistant to experimental salinization

Ury,

Ardón,

Wright

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Salinization of coastal freshwater wetlands is an increasingly common and widespread phenomenon resulting from climate change. The ecosystem consequences of added salinity are poorly constrained and highly variable across prior observational and experimental studies. We added 1.8 metric tons of marine salts to replicated 200 m2 plots within a restored forested wetland in Eastern North Carolina over the course of four years. Based on prior small-scale experiments at this site, we predicted that salinization would lead to slower tree growth and suppressed soil carbon cycling. Results from this large-scale field experiment were subtle and inconsistent over space and time. By the fourth year of the experiment, we observed the predicted suppression of soil respiration and a reduction of water extractable carbon from soils receiving salt treatments. However, we found no cumulative effects of four years of salinization on total soil carbon stocks, tree growth, or root biomass. We observed substantial variation in soil solution chemistry (notably, pH and base saturation) across replicated treatment blocks; the effective salt levels, ionic composition, and pH varied following treatment depending upon pre-existing differences in edaphic factors. Our multi-year monitoring also revealed an underlying trend of wetland acidification across the entire site, a suspected effect of ecosystem recovery following wetland restoration on former agricultural land. The overwhelming resistance to our salt treatments could be attributed to the vigor of a relatively young, healthy wetland ecosystem. The heterogeneous responses to salt that we observed over space and time merits further investigation into the environmental factors that control carbon cycling in wetlands. This work highlights the importance of multi-year, large-scale field experiments for investigating ecosystem responses to global environmental change.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Restored forested wetland surprisingly resistant to experimental salinization

Ury,

Ardón,

Wright

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Multivariate Analysis of the Community Composition of Tidal Freshwater Forests on the Altamaha River, Georgia

Costomiris,

Hladik,

Craft

2024

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Situated in the transitional zone between non-tidal forests upstream and tidal freshwater marshes downstream, tidal freshwater forests (TFF) occupy a unique and increasingly precarious habitat due to the threat of saltwater intrusion and sea level rise. Salinization causes tree mortality and forest-to-marsh transition, which reduces biodiversity and carbon sequestration. The Altamaha River is the longest undammed river on the United States East Coast and has extensive TFF, but there have been only limited field studies examining TFF along the entire gradient of salinity and flooding. We surveyed thirty-eight forest plots on the Altamaha River along a gradient of tidal influence, and measured tree species composition, diameter, and height. Hierarchical clustering and indicator species analysis were used to identify TFF communities. The relationship of these communities to elevation and river distance was assessed using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). We identified six significantly different forest communities: Oak/Hornbeam, Water Tupelo, Bald Cypress/Tupelo, Pine, Swamp Tupelo, and Bald Cypress. Both elevation and river distance were significantly correlated with plot species composition (p = 0.001). Plots at the downstream extent of our study area had lower stem density, basal area, and species diversity than those further upstream, suggesting saltwater intrusion. This study demonstrates the importance of and need for thorough and robust analyses of tidal freshwater forest composition to improve prediction of TFF response to sea level rise.

show abstract

Salinization, inundation and tree mortality interact to affect greenhouse gas emissions from stressed coastal forests

Cited by 2 publications

References 67 publications

Restored forested wetland surprisingly resistant to experimental salinization

Restored forested wetland surprisingly resistant to experimental salinization

Multivariate Analysis of the Community Composition of Tidal Freshwater Forests on the Altamaha River, Georgia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About