Salt Marsh Zonal Migration and Ecosystem Service Change in Response to Global Sea Level Rise: A Case Study from an Urban Region

Feagin, Rusty A.; Martínez, M. Luisa; Mendoza-González, Gabriela; Costanza, Robert

doi:10.5751/es-03724-150414

Cited by 133 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Soil bulk density values for individual soil samples in our study area varied over a range from 0.08 to 1.13 g/cm 3 . These are comparable to previously reported values for coastal salt marsh soils in this region (Callaway et al, 1997) and also in our study area (Feagin et al, 2010).…”

Section: Temporal Changes: Soil Carbon Relative Sea-level History Ansupporting

confidence: 94%

The role of elevation, relative sea-level history and vegetation transition in determining carbon distribution in Spartina alterniflora dominated salt marshes

Kulawardhana

Feagin

Popescu

et al. 2015

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

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Section: Temporal Changes: Soil Carbon Relative Sea-level History Ansupporting

confidence: 94%

The role of elevation, relative sea-level history and vegetation transition in determining carbon distribution in Spartina alterniflora dominated salt marshes

Kulawardhana

Feagin

Popescu

et al. 2015

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science

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“…These important ecosystems are at risk from current and anticipated stressors, including sea level rise, higher average and peak temperatures, altered freshwater discharges and precipitation patterns, and more frequent droughts [4][5][6][7][8]. To date, climate induced changes have been associated with shifting vegetation phenologies, variations in biomass and/or net annual primary production (NAPP), and shifting species composition within marsh ecosystems [9][10][11][12][13]. Understanding how salt marsh ecosystems will continue to respond to a changing climate and additional anthropogenic disturbances are key questions for scientists, coastal reserve managers, conservationists, and coastal residents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…As sea levels rise, the frequency and duration of high marsh disturbances are expected to increase (Warren and Niering 1993;Reed 1995;Feagin et al 2010;Hong 2015). The Instituto Geográfico Português reported a mean sea level rise of 1.3 mm y between 1882 and 2000 in Cascais, near Lisbon.…”

Section: Otic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of zonal halophyte communities in salt marshes in the world

Lee¹,

Kim²

2018

JMIC

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Understanding of salt marsh plant zonation caused by abiotic and biotic factors is essential for successful conservation plans in the face of ongoing environmental change. The frequency of flooding is more important than elevation in predicting marsh plant zones. Tidal marsh plants are distributed across a wide gradient of soil-water salinities. Studies done to date indicate that redox potential, ionic composition of soil, moisture content of soil, latitude, topographical, and climatic factors may play some role in forming vegetation zones. Competition and facilitation are important in mediating zonation, and the importance of facilitation of plant growth increases with increasing physical stress within the abiotic range limits. A refined understanding of facilitation along stress gradients would help inform successful restoration and management of vegetation. In the salt marsh plant community, a trade-off between belowground competitive ability and the ability to tolerate physical stressors appears to drive plant growth patterns across the landscape. Understanding and predicting shifts between bare flats and vegetated marshes is of great importance, because it provides a useful scientific basis for understanding vegetation zonation. A bimodal distribution of intertidal elevations, positive feedbacks, and alternative stable states and abrupt shifts in elevation from bare flats to vegetated states are present in salt marsh ecosystems. Strategies to assess whether alternative stable states are present are now converging in fields as disparate as desertification, limnology, oceanography, ecology and climatology. Further research should therefore focus on the conditions for and the specific mechanisms behind alternative stable states in salt marsh ecosystems.

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Salt Marsh Zonal Migration and Ecosystem Service Change in Response to Global Sea Level Rise: A Case Study from an Urban Region

Cited by 133 publications

References 43 publications

The role of elevation, relative sea-level history and vegetation transition in determining carbon distribution in Spartina alterniflora dominated salt marshes

The role of elevation, relative sea-level history and vegetation transition in determining carbon distribution in Spartina alterniflora dominated 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

Dynamics of zonal halophyte communities in salt marshes in the world

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