Vegetation Community Response to Tidal Marsh Restoration of a Large River Estuary

Belleveau, Lisa; Takekawa, John Y.; Woo, Isa; Turner, Kylan; Barham, Jesse B.; Takekawa, Jean E.; Ellings, Christopher S.; Chin-Leo, Gerardo

doi:10.3955/046.089.0205

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Tall, overhanging vegetation, such as broadleaf cattails Typha latifolia , Lyngbye's sedge Carex lyngbyei , and rushes Juncus sp., line the edges of brackish channels and riverbanks (Belleveau et al. ). Transitional marsh gradually shifts to polyhaline emergent salt marsh as salinity increases.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Diet Analyses Reveal Contrasting Trophic Niches for Wild and Hatchery Juvenile Chinook Salmon in a Large River Delta

et al. 2018

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Hatchery programs have been used as a conservation tool to bolster declining populations of Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha along much of the North American Pacific coast. In many watersheds, hatchery stocks are released concurrently with the wild population, thus raising the potential for density‐dependent effects. Competition for prey resources during the critical period for early marine growth and survival may diminish the foraging capacity and growth potential of wild Chinook Salmon, highlighting the importance of a diverse and productive delta habitat mosaic. We used an integrated diet approach with stomach content and stable isotope analyses to evaluate contrasting patterns of habitat use and prey consumption in a fall‐run population of juvenile Chinook Salmon from the Nisqually River delta in Puget Sound, Washington. We examined size‐class and origin‐level differences throughout a gradient of delta habitat types. Wild (unmarked) and hatchery juveniles exhibited distinct habitat use patterns whereby unmarked fish were captured more frequently in tidally influenced freshwater and mesohaline emergent marsh areas, while hatchery fish were caught more often in the nearshore intertidal zone. Consequently, hatchery fish were less likely to consume the energy‐dense terrestrial insects that were more common in freshwater and brackish marshes. Stable isotope signatures from muscle and liver tissues corroborated this finding, showing that unmarked juveniles had derived 24–31% of their diets from terrestrially sourced prey, while terrestrial insects only made up 2–8% of hatchery fish diets. This may explain why unmarked fish were in better condition than hatchery fish and had stomach contents that were 15% more energy‐rich than those of hatchery fish. We did not observe strong evidence for trophic overlap in juvenile Chinook Salmon of different rearing origins, but our results suggest that hatchery juveniles could be more sensitive to diet‐mediated effects on growth and survival.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Diet Analyses Reveal Contrasting Trophic Niches for Wild and Hatchery Juvenile Chinook Salmon in a Large River Delta

et al. 2018

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“…Both reference channels lie in high salt marsh (approximately 2.5 m), but Red Salmon Reference is relatively shallow (47% inundation frequency) and is roughly 5 PSU more saline than the deeper Nisqually Reference channel (67% inundation frequency). The marsh plain at Red Salmon Reference is dominated by halophilic plant species, while Nisqually Reference is more brackish, containing a combination of fresh and salt marsh vegetation typical of the Pacific Northwest (Belleveau et al ). Together, these study sites are representative of the full range of variation in restoring and unaltered habitats throughout the Nisqually River Delta.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced invertebrate prey production following estuarine restoration supports foraging for multiple species of juvenile salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.)

Woo

Davis

Ellings

et al. 2017

Restoration Ecology

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Estuaries provide crucial foraging resources and nursery habitat for threatened populations of anadromous salmon. As such, there has been a global undertaking to restore habitat and tidal processes in modified estuaries. The foraging capacity of these ecosystems to support various species of out‐migrating juvenile salmon can be quantified by monitoring benthic, terrestrial, and pelagic invertebrate prey communities. Here, we present notable trends in the availability of invertebrate prey at several sites within a restoring large river delta in Puget Sound, Washington, U.S.A. Three years after the system was returned to tidal influence, we observed substantial additions to amphipod, copepod, and cumacean abundances in newly accessible marsh channels (from 0 to roughly 5,000–75,000 individuals/m2). In the restoration area, terrestrial invertebrate colonization was dependent upon vegetative cover, with dipteran and hymenopteran biomass increasing 3‐fold between 1 and 3 years post‐restoration. While the overall biodiversity within the restoration area was lower than in the reference marsh, estimated biomass was comparable to or greater than that found within the other study sites. This additional prey biomass likely provided foraging benefits for juvenile Chinook, chum, and coho salmon. Primary physical drivers differed for benthic, terrestrial, and pelagic invertebrates, and these invertebrate communities are expected to respond differentially depending on organic matter exchange and vegetative colonization. Restoring estuaries may take decades to meet certain success criteria, but our study demonstrates rapid enhancements in foraging resources understood to be used for estuary‐dependent wildlife.

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“…In the Nisqually River Delta, salinity correlates to specific species, while elevation is related to species richness. Within the salt marsh Carex lyngbyei (Lyngbye's sedge), Juncus baliticus (Baltic rush), and Potentilla anserine (silverweed) are commonly found in brackish areas, while Distichlis spicata (salt grass), Salicornia pacifica (pickleweed), and Jaumea carnosa (marsh jaumea) occupy areas of saline marsh [40]. Upland habitats occur at higher elevations outside of tidal and riparian influence, and are made up of mixed deciduous and evergreen forests, grassland, and agriculture [34].…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Through a series of public review, the Refuge completed their Comprehensive Conservation Plan that called for the removal of the old Brown Farm Dike and enhancements for managed freshwater units within the Refuge. Initial restoration by the Tribe began in the Pilot management site in 1996 (Figure 2), with the removal of dikes from tribal property, followed by the Phase I site in 2002 and the Phase II site in 2006 [40,46]. Restoration efforts culminated in 2009, with the removal of the Brown Farm Dike, with a total of 308.37 ha restored to estuarine conditions and 9800 m of channels to tidal flow [47,48].…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on vegetation elevation modeling, Monden [62] predicted that the establishment of plants would begin in patches filling in on the eastern side of the restoration, with minimal vegetation developing on the western side due to low elevations. In 2010, half of the restored marsh had sufficient height for the establishment of vegetation, with most of it occupied by low marsh plants [40]. Two years after the restoration, colonization of tidal marsh vegetation was mostly limited to pickleweed (Salicornia pacifica) and sand-spurry (Spergularia canadensis), with only 20% of the monitoring quadrats containing emergent plants [66].…”

Section: Wetland Changementioning

confidence: 99%

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Remote Sensing for Wetland Mapping and Historical Change Detection at the Nisqually River Delta

et al. 2017

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Coastal wetlands are important ecosystems for carbon storage and coastal resilience to climate change and sea-level rise. As such, changes in wetland habitat types can also impact ecosystem functions. Our goal was to quantify historical vegetation change within the Nisqually River watershed relevant to carbon storage, wildlife habitat, and wetland sustainability, and identify watershed-scale anthropogenic and hydrodynamic drivers of these changes. To achieve this, we produced time-series classifications of habitat, photosynthetic pathway functional types and species in the Nisqually River Delta for the years 1957, 1980, and 2015. Using an object-oriented approach, we performed a hierarchical classification on historical and current imagery to identify change within the watershed and wetland ecosystems. We found a 188.4 ha (79%) increase in emergent marsh wetland within the Nisqually River Delta between 1957 and 2015 as a result of restoration efforts that occurred in several phases through 2009. Despite these wetland gains, a total of 83.1 ha (35%) of marsh was lost between 1957 and 2015, particularly in areas near the Nisqually River mouth due to erosion and shifting river channels, resulting in a net wetland gain of 105.4 ha (44%). We found the trajectory of wetland recovery coincided with previous studies, demonstrating the role of remote sensing for historical wetland change detection as well as future coastal wetland monitoring.

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Vegetation Community Response to Tidal Marsh Restoration of a Large River Estuary

Cited by 22 publications

References 42 publications

Integrated Diet Analyses Reveal Contrasting Trophic Niches for Wild and Hatchery Juvenile Chinook Salmon in a Large River Delta

Integrated Diet Analyses Reveal Contrasting Trophic Niches for Wild and Hatchery Juvenile Chinook Salmon in a Large River Delta

Enhanced invertebrate prey production following estuarine restoration supports foraging for multiple species of juvenile salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.)

Remote Sensing for Wetland Mapping and Historical Change Detection at the Nisqually River Delta

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