Effects of Wind Waves versus Ship Waves on Tidal Marsh Plants: A Flume Study on Different Life Stages of Scirpus maritimus

Silinski, Alexandra; Heuner, Maike; Schoelynck, Jonas; Puijalon, Sara; Schröder, Uwe; Fuchs, Elmar; Troch, Peter; Bouma, Tjeerd J.; Meire, Patrick; Temmerman, Stijn

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118687

Cited by 81 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Channel width was significantly associated with cliff retreat rate, such that cliffs fronted by wider channels tended to retreat more rapidly. Waves caused by ships may aggravate marsh edge erosion [ Silinski et al , ]. Moreover, mudflat morphology, including mudflat width and mudflat slope, affected wave attenuation, which is determined by water depth [ van de Koppel et al , ; Mariotti et al , ], and the cross‐shore location of possible cliff formation is determined by the ratio of wave height to water depth [ Feagin et al , ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zooming in and out: Scale dependence of extrinsic and intrinsic factors affecting salt marsh erosion

et al. 2017

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Salt marshes are valuable ecosystems that provide important ecosystem services. Given the global scale of marsh loss due to climate change and coastal squeeze, there is a pressing need to identify the critical extrinsic (wind exposure and foreshore morphology) and intrinsic factors (soil and vegetation properties) affecting the erosion of salt marsh edges. In this study, we quantified rates of cliff lateral retreat (i.e., the eroding edge of a salt marsh plateau) using a time series of aerial photographs taken over four salt marsh sites in the Westerschelde estuary, the Netherlands. In addition, we experimentally quantified the erodibility of sediment cores collected from the marsh edge of these four marshes using wave tanks. Our results revealed the following: (i) at the large scale, wind exposure and the presence of pioneer vegetation in front of the cliff were the key factors governing cliff retreat rates; (ii) at the intermediate scale, foreshore morphology was partially related to cliff retreat; (iii) at the local scale, the erodibility of the sediment itself at the marsh edge played a large role in determining the cliff retreat rate; and (iv) at the mesocosm scale, cliff erodibility was determined by soil properties and belowground root biomass. Thus, both extrinsic and intrinsic factors determined the fate of the salt marsh but at different scales. Our study highlights the importance of understanding the scale dependence of the factors driving the evolution of salt marsh landscapes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zooming in and out: Scale dependence of extrinsic and intrinsic factors affecting salt marsh erosion

et al. 2017

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“…Biomechanical properties of intertidal plants have already been assessed in a number of studies (e.g., Carus et al for S. maritimus sampled from the field; Coops and Van der Velde for Phragmitis australis and Scirpus lacustris sampled from the field; Heuner et al for S. maritimus and S. tabernaemontani grown under controlled and sheltered conditions; Möller et al for Puccinellia maritima and Elymus athericus sampled from the field; Rupprecht et al for Spartina anglica , Puccinellia maritima , and E. athericus sampled from the field; Silinski et al for S. maritimus grown under controlled and sheltered conditions). The results presented here are, overall, in the same range as the ones reported by these studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On a biomechanical level, plants typically follow either an avoidance or a tolerance strategy (Coops et al 1994;Puijalon et al 2011). Enhanced flexibility, which enables the plant to bend when exposed to water flow or waves and thus to reduce experienced drag, can be seen as a typical stress-avoidance strategy (Puijalon et al 2011;Schoelynck et al 2013;Silinski et al 2015). High mechanical resistance to breaking, on the other hand, determines the capacity of the plants to tolerate hydrodynamic stress, and is usually correlated to higher tissue rigidity (Coops and Van der Velde 1996;Puijalon et al 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%

Coping with waves: Plasticity in tidal marsh plants as self‐adapting coastal ecosystem engineers

Silinski

Schoutens

Puijalon

et al. 2017

Limnology & Oceanography

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Tidal marsh vegetation is increasingly valued for its role in ecosystem‐based coastal protection due to its wave dissipating capacity. As the efficiency of wave dissipation is known to depend on specific vegetation properties, we quantified how these morphological, biochemical, and biomechanical properties of tidal marsh vegetation are, in turn, affected by wave exposure. This was achieved by field measurements at two locations, with contrasting wave exposure, in the brackish part of the Scheldt Estuary (SW Netherlands), where Scirpus maritimus is the dominant pioneer species. Our results show that shoots from more wave‐exposed conditions developed significantly shorter and thicker stems than the ones growing in more sheltered conditions. Furthermore, we show that the more exposed shoots are more flexible whereas the shoots growing in more sheltered conditions are stiffer. This may indicate plasticity in response to wave exposure following a stress‐avoidance strategy. Increasing stiffness was shown to be related to enhanced biogenic silica and lignin contents of the shoot tissue. These properties might affect the wave‐attenuating capacity of the marsh as stiff plants are known to mitigate waves more effectively than flexible ones. However, we also found higher shoot densities on the exposed site, which may partly explain why higher relative wave attenuation rates were found on the exposed site, despite the presence of more flexible individual shoots. This study highlights that the efficiency of wave attenuation by tidal marsh vegetation ultimately depends on mutual interactions between waves and plasticity in morphological, biochemical, and biomechanical plant properties.

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“…Numerous studies have focused on the effect of tidal regimes on plant traits. However, most of these studies were performed in the laboratory (Silinski et al 2015, Hanley et al 2017. Hanley et al (2017) reported the response of different plant species to short-duration (0, 2, 8 or 24 h) immersion using a seawater inundation experiment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tidal regime influences the spatial variation in trait‐based responses of Suaeda salsa and edaphic conditions

Wang

Yan

et al. 2019

Ecosphere

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Tidal regime is recognized as a vital hydrological process in the restructuring of saltmarsh vegetation communities, resulting in differing edaphic conditions and ecosystem functions. Ample studies have focused on the context‐dependent effects of tidal disturbance on saltmarsh vegetation worldwide, particularly trait‐based responses to physical factors; however, to our knowledge, there are few insights into the edaphic conditions and responses of saltmarsh plants as well as plant–soil systems to tidal disturbance gradients in the Yellow River Delta (YRD), a temperate estuary in northern China. Here, we conducted field surveys and experimental fieldwork at four distinct sites that varied with tidal regime. Site‐specific effects of tidal disturbance on the annual saltmarsh foundation plant Suaeda salsa, as well as their edaphic surroundings, were analyzed. Our results showed that trait‐based responses largely explained the tidal disturbance impacts on S. salsa; moreover, the edaphic environment differed significantly among sites. We found that flooding frequency had a significantly negative relation to S. salsa total biomass, which consisted of above‐ and belowground biomass, and a significantly positive relation to height. In general, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus differed among sites, and these differences changed with the soil layers. In addition, there were some correlations between the soil environment and plant traits. Total organic carbon was linearly positively linked to the biomass of S. salsa at each soil depth. The carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus stoichiometry of the soil had a low correlation with that of the belowground biomass of S. salsa but had a significant correlation with that of the aboveground biomass of S. salsa. Our study suggests that spatial patterns of S. salsa and edaphic conditions in the YRD vary with tidal regime, therefore providing a basis for the context‐dependent conservation and restoration of coastal saltmarsh ecosystems, especially in areas with irregular, semidiurnal tides. Moreover, our findings highlight the importance of potential interactive effects between plant traits and tidal disturbances in regulating biogeochemical cycles, especially carbon sequestration, in coastal saltmarsh systems.

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Effects of Wind Waves versus Ship Waves on Tidal Marsh Plants: A Flume Study on Different Life Stages of Scirpus maritimus

Cited by 81 publications

References 38 publications

Zooming in and out: Scale dependence of extrinsic and intrinsic factors affecting salt marsh erosion

Zooming in and out: Scale dependence of extrinsic and intrinsic factors affecting salt marsh erosion

Coping with waves: Plasticity in tidal marsh plants as self‐adapting coastal ecosystem engineers

Tidal regime influences the spatial variation in trait‐based responses of Suaeda salsa and edaphic conditions

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