Biomass allocation of tidal freshwater marsh species in response to natural and manipulated hydroperiod in coastal deltaic floodplains

Rovai, André Scarlate; Twilley, Robert R.; Christensen, A.; Mccall, A.; Jensen, Daniel; Snedden, Gregg A.; Morris, James T.; Cavell, John A.

doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2022.107784

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…P. australis was also susceptible to flood stress, exhibiting consistently lower survivorship in heavily flooded treatments (Figure 6), while drought stress was not apparent in the highelevation treatments, even in the saline site (but compared to drought stress found by [32]). This contrasts with a marsh organ study of an invasive, potentially more flood-tolerant freshwater species, Colocasia esculenta L. Schott, which found a positive relationship between aboveground biomass and flood duration [33,34]. Porewater phytotoxins such as sulfide and acetic acid, associated with salinity and anaerobic conditions from flooding, further contribute to sea-level rise-associated stress, including reduced growth and mortality in P. australis (Figures 3 and 8; Refs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Salt Water Exposure Exacerbates the Negative Response of Phragmites australis Haplotypes to Sea-Level Rise

Lynn,

Elsey-Quirk

2024

Plants

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The response of coastal wetlands to sea-level rise (SLR) largely depends on the tolerance of individual plant species to inundation stress and, in brackish and freshwater wetlands, exposure to higher salinities. Phragmites australis is a cosmopolitan wetland reed that grows in saline to freshwater marshes. P. australis has many genetically distinct haplotypes, some of which are invasive and the focus of considerable research and management. However, the relative response of P. australis haplotypes to SLR is not well known, despite the importance of predicting future distribution changes and understanding its role in marsh response and resilience to SLR. Here, we use a marsh organ experiment to test how factors associated with sea level rise—inundation and seawater exposure—affect the porewater chemistry and growth response of three P. australis haplotypes along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast. We planted three P. australis lineages (Delta, European, and Gulf) into marsh organs at five different elevations in channels at two locations, representing a low (Mississippi River Birdsfoot delta; 0–13 ppt) and high exposure to salinity (Mermentau basin; 6–18 ppt) for two growing seasons. Haplotypes responded differently to flooding and site conditions; the Delta haplotype was more resilient to high salinity, while the Gulf type was less susceptible to flood stress in the freshwater site. Survivorship across haplotypes after two growing seasons was 42% lower at the brackish site than at the freshwater site, associated with high salinity and sulfide concentrations. Flooding greater than 19% of the time led to lower survival across both sites linked to high concentrations of acetic acid in the porewater. Increased flood duration was negatively correlated with live aboveground biomass in the high-salinity site (χ2 = 10.37, p = 0.001), while no such relationship was detected in the low-salinity site, indicating that flood tolerance is greater under freshwater conditions. These results show that the vulnerability of all haplotypes of P. australis to rising sea levels depends on exposure to saline water and that a combination of flooding and salinity may help control invasive haplotypes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Salt Water Exposure Exacerbates the Negative Response of Phragmites australis Haplotypes to Sea-Level Rise

Lynn,

Elsey-Quirk

2024

Plants

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“…). Furthermore, a recent study of plant biomass in WLD, based on an in-situ mesocosm experiment, found that hydrogeomorphic zones explained species biomass variability, and reported a speci cally strong positive correlation of C. esculenta AGB with percent inundated time, increasing from higher elevation to the lower elevation (intermediate intertidal) zone (Rovai et al 2022). Our study also found variability in seasonal succession of freshwater species in the inactive Terrebonne basin (Appendix S2: Fig.…”

Section: Unlike Freshwater C 3 Plants C 4 Plants Have Better Photosyn...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomass and carbon stocks in deltaic wetlands across active and inactive basins in the Mississippi River Delta, USA

Solohin

Castañeda‐Moya

Twilley

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Deltaic wetlands in coastal Louisiana are experiencing widespread changes in vegetation dynamics and distribution due to rising sea level and long-term modifications in hydrology and sediment supply. Using field and remote sensing data, we investigated how aboveground biomass (AGB) and C stocks change in response to seasonality along salinity and soil nutrient gradients across different wetland habitats in two coastal basins with active (Atchafalaya - AB) and inactive (Terrebonne - TB) hydrological regimes. The highest seasonal changes in AGB and C stocks across both basins occurred in saline (SL) sites (AGB range: 343 ± 101 to 1214 ± 210 g m− 2) in early growing and peak biomass season, respectively. Biomass productivity rates varied across basins, with SL sites being the most productive, albeit less species-diverse. Foliar nutrient uptake was higher in the mineral-rich soils of AB freshwater (FW) site. In contrast, Terrebonne FW plants (as well as brackish and SL) had lower tissue nutrients and higher biomass allocation, indicating greater nutrient use efficiency with increasing salinity stress. Seasonal variation in AGB was positively correlated with porewater salinity and with soil nutrients (total nitrogen (N) and phosphorus). As hypothesized, changes in plant and soil isotopic signatures in both basins paralleled the spatiotemporal patterns in environmental stressors (e.g., elevated salinity and nutrient availability). Our findings show that in both active and inactive coastal delta basins, herbaceous wetlands maintain high biomass and C stocks by developing adaptive strategies in response to the distribution of environmental stressors and availability of resources.

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Roles of ecological and hydrological processes in the variability of carbon fluxes in a salt marsh of the Yangtze Estuary: Model simulations vs. measurements

Zhu,

Li,

Zhao

et al. 2025

Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

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Biomass allocation of tidal freshwater marsh species in response to natural and manipulated hydroperiod in coastal deltaic floodplains

Cited by 5 publications

References 74 publications

Salt Water Exposure Exacerbates the Negative Response of Phragmites australis Haplotypes to Sea-Level Rise

Salt Water Exposure Exacerbates the Negative Response of Phragmites australis Haplotypes to Sea-Level Rise

Biomass and carbon stocks in deltaic wetlands across active and inactive basins in the Mississippi River Delta, USA

Roles of ecological and hydrological processes in the variability of carbon fluxes in a salt marsh of the Yangtze Estuary: Model simulations vs. measurements

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