Eutrophication decreases salt marsh resilience through proliferation of algal mats

Wasson, Kerstin; Jeppesen, Rikke; Endris, Charles A.; Perry, Danielle C.; Woolfolk, Andrea; Beheshti, Kathryn; Rodrı́guez, Miguel Á.; Eby, Ron; Watson, E. B.; Rahman, Farzana I.; Haskins, John; Hughes, Brent B.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2017.05.019

Cited by 60 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…During closed mouth conditions, these blooms cover the submerged macrophytes and salt marsh causing dieback (Nunes and Adams 2014). Eutrophication in a California estuary reduced salt marsh resilience through the proliferation of algal mats, reducing salt marsh cover and increasing salt marsh edge erosion (Wasson et al 2017).…”

Section: Macroalgal Bloomsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrient enrichment as a threat to the ecological resilience and health of South African microtidal estuaries

Adams

Taljaard

Niekerk

et al. 2020

African Journal of Aquatic Science

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Journal of Aquatic Science is co-published by NISC (Pty) Ltd and Informa UK Limited (trading as Taylor & Francis Group) water and to the quality of the water concerned' (OSPAR 2003). Eutrophication is characterised by a surge in primary production in response to nutrient loading that results in a loss of submerged aquatic vegetation, oxygen depletion, harmful algal blooms, imbalanced food webs, lower biodiversity, altered biogeochemical cycling and fish-kills (Conley et al. 2009; Ferreira et al. 2011; Lemley and Adams 2019a; Van Niekerk et al. 2019a). Depending on the scale of nutrient enrichment and the type of estuary, these impacts can cause the state of an estuary to change from one dominated by macrophytes to another dominated by phytoplankton and/or macroalgae (Dahlgren and Kautsky 2004; Smith and Schindler 2009; Nunes and Adams 2014; Lemley et al. 2018c). South Africa has a range of estuary types that occur across four biogeographic regions; cool temperate, warm temperate, subtropical and tropical (Whitfield 1992; Van Niekerk et al. 2020). Nutrient enrichment is a serious concern not only in temporarily closed estuaries (e.g. Groot Brak), but also in large permanently open systems

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Section: Macroalgal Bloomsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrient enrichment as a threat to the ecological resilience and health of South African microtidal estuaries

Adams

Taljaard

Niekerk

et al. 2020

African Journal of Aquatic Science

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“…Many wetlands are subjected to eutrophication due to the input of excess nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), arising from fossil fuel combustion, agricultural activities and livestock waste [ 19 , 20 ]. AMF and nutrients could exert an interactive effect on plant growth [ 21 , 22 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and soil nutrient addition on the growth of Phragmites australis under different drying-rewetting cycles

Jinfeng

Gao

et al. 2018

PLoS ONE

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The frequency of soil drying–rewetting cycles is predicted to increase under future global climate change, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are symbiotic with most plants. However, it remains unknown how AMF affect plant growth under different frequencies of soil drying–rewetting cycles. We subjected a clonal wetland plant Phragmites australis to three frequencies of drying-rewetting cycles (1, 2, or 4 cycles), two nutrient treatments (with or without), and two AMF treatments (with or without) for 64 days. AMF promoted the growth of P. australis, especially in the 2 cycles of the drying-rewetting treatment. AMF had a significant positive effect on leaf mass and number of ramets in the 2 cycles of the drying-rewetting treatment with nutrient addition. In the 2 cycles of drying-rewetting treatment without nutrient addition, AMF increased leaf area and decreased belowground to aboveground biomass ratio. These results indicate that AMF may assist P. australis in coping with medium frequency of drying-rewetting cycles, and provide theoretical guidance for predicting how wetland plants respond to future global climate change.

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“…Existing literature on how fertilization pulses alter temporal stability suggests strong effects but of an unknown direction. Wasson et al (2017) showed that eutrophication lowered the resilience in a salt march whereas Yang et al (2011) and Grman et al (2010) found positive effects of fertilization on the temporal stability of terrestrial systems. By contrast, we found strong effects of net plant biomass and removal of plants in agreement with a study by Bruelheide and Luginbühl (2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Excluding arbuscular mycorrhiza lowers variability in soil respiration but slows down recovery from perturbations

et al. 2020

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The role of mutualisms in mediating temporal stability in an ecosystem has been debated extensively. Here, we focus on how a ubiquitous mutualism, arbuscular mycorrhiza, influences temporal stability of a key ecosystem process, ecosystem respiration. We discriminated between two forms of temporal stability, temporal variability and resilience, and hypothesized that excluding arbuscular mycorrhiza would be detrimental for both of them. We analyzed a set of 10 parallel manipulation experiments to assess how excluding arbuscular mycorrhiza modulates temporal stability compared to other common experimental factors. We quantified the temporal variability of ecosystem respiration and the resilience to experimental perturbations (i.e., pulses, stresses, and a disturbance) following manipulations of mycorrhizal state. We observed lower temporal variability in the absence of arbuscular mycorrhiza in discord to our main hypothesis. Manipulating arbuscular mycorrhiza had a stronger impact on temporal variability than the pulse (application of urea), the stress (addition of salt), and a disturbance (experimental defoliation) but weaker than excluding primary producers or comparing across different plant species. Resilience to experimental perturbations declined in non‐mycorrhizal microcosms. We present an empirical study on how mutualisms impact temporal stability. Arbuscular mycorrhiza differentially alters temporal variability and resilience, highlighting that generalizing across different forms of temporal stability could be misleading.

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Eutrophication decreases salt marsh resilience through proliferation of algal mats

Cited by 60 publications

References 54 publications

Nutrient enrichment as a threat to the ecological resilience and health of South African microtidal estuaries

Nutrient enrichment as a threat to the ecological resilience and health of South African microtidal estuaries

Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and soil nutrient addition on the growth of Phragmites australis under different drying-rewetting cycles

Excluding arbuscular mycorrhiza lowers variability in soil respiration but slows down recovery from perturbations

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