Net Primary Productivity of Spartina densiflora Brong in an SW Atlantic Coastal Salt Marsh

Abstract

Coastal marshes are known as organic matter producers. The goal of this work is to study tiller demography, standing biomass, and net aerial primary productivity (NAPP) in a Spartina densiflora coastal wetland, using a method applied to permanent sample plots located at two sites differing in topographic location, a regularly flooded zone [relative low marsh (LM)] and an irregularly flooded one [relative high marsh (HM)]. Measurements were made every 2 months during the 2005-2007 period. The annual NAPP was estimated to be 2,599±705 gDW m −2 year −1 for the HM and 2,181± 605 gDW m −2 year −1 and 602±154 gDW m −2 year −1 for the first and second period of the LM populations, respectively, showing a seasonal pattern reaching maximum values in summer. The reduced NAPP values of the LM sites in the second year was associated with an extremely high precipitation period related to the 2007-2008 El Niño event.

Effects of semi-lunar tidal cycling on soil CO2 and CH4 emissions: a case study in the Yangtze River estuary, China

“…Because of greater inundation frequency and longer duration, this exchange of salts was more efficient in the low tide zone than in the high tide zone. Consequently, nutrient input via this mechanism may be vital in supporting a high plant productivity in coastal wetlands (Morris and Haskin 1990;Trilla et al 2010). We speculate that positive effects of nutrient input on plant productivity were stronger in the low tide zone than in the high tide zone.…”

Vegetation patterns in a South American coastal wetland using high-resolution imagery

“…densiflorus was restricted to the middle and high elevations of the coastal marshes, and it was rarely found in the low intertidal areas (Bortolus, 2001;Kandus et al, 2010;Nieva, Dı´az-Espejo, Castellanos, & Figueroa, 2001). These plant communities are flooded between 9.4% and 22.3% in Mar Chiquita coastal marshes (Buenos Aires province) (González Trilla et al, 2010). The location of this species is equivalent to that of Spartina patens (Aiton) Muhl in the North Hemisphere (Mitsch & Gosselink, 2007).…”

“…Coastal wetlands provide a wide range of essential environmental services such as coastline protection, sustainment of food webs through organic matter exchange, wildlife habitat, and improvement of estuary water quality (Adam, Bertness, Davy, & Zedler, 2008;Bertness, 1998;Isacch, Escapa, Fanjul, & Iribarne, 2011). In South America, towards the southern portion of the Atlantic Ocean, coastal wetlands are characterized by marshes, which are subjected to extreme environmental conditions of low temperature, salinity, regular tidal flooding, and the mechanical impact of waves and storms (Cagnoni & Faggi, 1993;Chabreck, 1988;González Trilla, De Marco, Marcovecchio, Vicari, & Kandus, 2010). As a consequence of this limiting environment, plant communities are composed of a few species that are distributed as patches or narrow fragmented fringes almost parallel to the shoreline (Adam, 1990;Day, Kemp, Yañez Arancibia, & Crump, 2012).…”

Radiometric Characterization of a Marsh Site at the Argentinian Pampas in the Context of Hypernets Project (A New Autonomous Hyperspectral Radiometer)

“…Sporobolus densiflorus populations are found in middle and upper intertidal zones, including ecotones with adjacent terrestrial ecosystems (Castillo et al, 2000). This distribution pattern is observed both in the Buenos Aires province where this species is native (Bortolus, 2006, González Trilla et al, 2010 and in the U.S. and Europe where it is invasive (Castillo et al, 2000, Nieva et al, 2001. For more detail see (González Trilla et al, 2013).…”