Landscape Estimates of Habitat Types, Plant Biomass, and Invertebrate Densities in a Georgia Salt Marsh

Schalles, John F.; Hladik, Christine M.; Lynes, Alana A.; Pennings, Steven C.

doi:10.5670/oceanog.2013.50

Cited by 41 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…We define the patch scale as 0.25 m 2 because our observations of natural mussel aggregations (as well as the results from this study) indicate that the size of the largest aggregations and their effects on the ecosystem are confined within this spatial scale in marsh platforms that occur between northeastern Florida and central North Carolina, our study region. Additionally, we test whether mussel aggregations, at their natural distribution within marsh platforms, increase the total number of marsh invertebrates (H 4 ) and total yield of ecosystem functions (H 5 ) at the landscape scale, which we define as 500 m 2 , an area representative of a small marsh platform in this region [39].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foundation species' overlap enhances biodiversity and multifunctionality from the patch to landscape scale in southeastern United States salt marshes

Heide²,

et al. 2015

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Although there is mounting evidence that biodiversity is an important and widespread driver of ecosystem multifunctionality, much of this research has focused on small-scale biodiversity manipulations. Hence, which mechanisms maintain patches of enhanced biodiversity in natural systems and if these patches elevate ecosystem multifunctionality at both local and landscape scales remain outstanding questions. In a 17 month experiment conducted within southeastern United States salt marshes, we found that patches of enhanced biodiversity and multifunctionality arise only where habitat-forming foundation species overlap-i.e. where aggregations of ribbed mussels (Geukensia demissa) form around cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) stems. By empirically scaling up our experimental results to the marsh platform at 12 sites, we further show that mussels-despite covering only approximately 1% of the marsh surface-strongly enhance five distinct ecosystem functions, including decomposition, primary production and water infiltration rate, at the landscape scale. Thus, mussels create conditions that support the co-occurrence of high densities of functionally distinct organisms within cordgrass and, in doing so, elevate salt marsh multifunctionality from the patch to landscape scale. Collectively, these findings suggest that patterns in foundation species' overlap drive variation in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning within and across natural ecosystems. We therefore argue that foundation species should be integrated in our conceptual understanding of forces that moderate biodiversity -ecosystem functioning relationships, approaches for conserving species diversity and strategies to improve the multifunctionality of degraded ecosystems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foundation species' overlap enhances biodiversity and multifunctionality from the patch to landscape scale in southeastern United States salt marshes

Heide²,

et al. 2015

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“…Four parallel AISA Eagle (63 bands, 1 m resolution) flight lines flown over the Duplin River tidal watershed on 20 June 2006 were individually georectified and atmospherically corrected, using Environment for Visualizing Images software (ENVI, Exelis VIS (Boulder, CO, USA)) Fast Line-of-sight Atmospheric Analysis of Hypercubes (FLAASH) and then combined as a mosaic using ENVI. For further details, see Schalles et al [27] for plant sample processing and initial biomass mapping and Hladik et al [24] for pre-processing of hyperspectral imagery and species-level mapping.…”

Section: S Alterniflora Biomass Algorithm Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aboveground biomass data for S. alterniflora were collected concurrently with a hyperspectral flyover in June, 2006 [27]. S. alterniflora biomass values were obtained from harvesting all standing material (live and dead), at the soil line, in 0.25ˆ0.25 m subplots.…”

Section: S Alterniflora Biomass Algorithm Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Summary of mean elevation (m) for each habitat class (species) measured in the Hladik and Alber [26] Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) survey within the Duplin River watershed, Georgia. Median biomass values and percent coverage of each habitat class are from the Schalles et al [27] analysis of hyperspectral imagery acquired over the same watershed. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Examination of Abiotic Drivers and Their Influence on Spartina alterniflora Biomass over a Twenty-Eight Year Period Using Landsat 5 TM Satellite Imagery of the Central Georgia Coast

O’Donnell

Schalles

2016

Remote Sensing

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Abstract:We examined the influence of abiotic drivers on inter-annual and phenological patterns of aboveground biomass for Marsh Cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora, on the Central Georgia Coast. The linkages between drivers and plant response via soil edaphic factors are captured in our graphical conceptual model. We used geospatial techniques to scale up in situ measurements of aboveground S. alterniflora biomass to landscape level estimates using 294 Landsat 5 TM scenes acquired between 1984 and 2011. For each scene we extracted data from the same 63 sampling polygons, containing 1222 pixels covering about 1.1 million m 2 . Using univariate and multiple regression tests, we compared Landsat derived biomass estimates for three S. alterniflora size classes against a suite of abiotic drivers. River discharge, total precipitation, minimum temperature, and mean sea level had positive relationships with and best explained biomass for all dates. Additional results, using seasonally binned data, indicated biomass was responsive to changing combinations of variables across the seasons. Our 28-year analysis revealed aboveground biomass declines of 33%, 35%, and 39% for S. alterniflora tall, medium, and short size classes, respectively. This decline correlated with drought frequency and severity trends and coincided with marsh die-backs events and increased snail herbivory in the second half of the study period.

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“…Optical and synthetic aperture radar imagery have been widely used to detect and monitor coastal wetlands, mainly for vegetation classification and estimating biological parameters, such as aboveground biomass (Simard et al, 2006;Schalles et al, 2013, in this issue). However, most of these remote-sensing techniques cannot detect water levels in wetlands, as the water is often beneath the vegetation cover.…”

Section: B Y S H I M O N W D O W I N S K I S a N G -H O O N H O N Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote-Sensing Monitoring of Tide Propagation Through Coastal Wetlands

Wdowinski¹,

Hong²,

Mulcan³

et al. 2013

oceanog

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Landscape Estimates of Habitat Types, Plant Biomass, and Invertebrate Densities in a Georgia Salt Marsh

Cited by 41 publications

References 17 publications

Foundation species' overlap enhances biodiversity and multifunctionality from the patch to landscape scale in southeastern United States salt marshes

Foundation species' overlap enhances biodiversity and multifunctionality from the patch to landscape scale in southeastern United States salt marshes

Examination of Abiotic Drivers and Their Influence on Spartina alterniflora Biomass over a Twenty-Eight Year Period Using Landsat 5 TM Satellite Imagery of the Central Georgia Coast

Remote-Sensing Monitoring of Tide Propagation Through Coastal Wetlands

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