Sulphide as a Soil Phytotoxin: Differential Responses in Two Marsh Species

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. British Ecological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Ecology. SUMMARY(1) A glasshouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of soil reduction and hydrogen sulphide accumulation on the growth of two marsh species, Spartina alterniflora and Panicuni henuitomon. Three treatmenis were applied to replicated soil cores containing intact vegetation: flooded aerated, flooded non-aerated, and flooded nonaerated with sulphide added.(2) The addition of 10 mM sulphide resulted in significantly less total biomass of S. alterniflora and P. hemitomon. Sulphide significantly reduced culm, root and rhizome biomass in P. hemitonon but only root biomass in S. alterniflora.(3) Paniicuni henlitomoni had no significant difference in total biomass between the aerated and non-aerated treatments, but S. alterniflora total biomass was lower in the aerated treatment than in the non-aerated treatment.(4) Redox potential (mV) in the soil cores of both species was highest in the aerated treatment, intermediate in the non-aerated treatment, and lowest in the sulphide treatment.(5) Spartina alterniflora and P. hemitomon soluble interstitial NH4 + and P043concentrations followed an inverse relationship to redox potential and differences between treatments were highly significant.(6) Root iron concentrations in S. alterniflora were an order of magnitude higher than iron concentrations in leaves of S. alterniiflora and roots and leaves of P. hemitomon. The majority of this root iron in S. alterniflora was associated with root coatings.

Combined effects of nitrogen enrichment, sulphur pollution and climate change on fen meadow vegetation N:P stoichiometry and biomass

“…S-addition significantly increased C. nigra N:P ratio by reducing plant P-content. If sulphate was indeed reduced to sulphide, these effects may result from toxic effects of sulphide on the plant roots, which can lead to reduced plant performance and vegetation productivity (Koch and Mendelssohn 1989;Smolders and Roelofs 1996). Toxic effects can occur from sulphide concentrations as low as 10 lmol l -1 for the most sensitive macrophyte species (Van der Welle et al 2008), which could have easily be reached even if only part of the added sulphate in our experiment would be reduced.…”

“…S-pollution can enhance plant phosphorous (P) availability in reduced fen soils by replacing PO 4 in iron-phosphate complexes (Lamers et al 1998;Smolders et al 2006). On the other hand, high N-and S-loading can also lead to toxic effects on fen plants, reducing their biomass production (Koch and Mendelssohn 1989;Smolders and Roelofs 1996;Lamers et al 1998). Global climate change may also increase both N-and P-availability.…”

Controls on soil cellulose decomposition along a salinity gradient in a Phragmites australis wetland in Denmark

“…A suction sampler was used to remove interstitial water from the 10-20 cm zone of the substrate as described previously (McKee et al, 1988;Koch and Mendelssohn, 1989). The sampler consisted of a small diameter (3 mm inside diameter) rigid plastic tube, containing numerous ca.…”

Elevated alkalinity and sulfate adversely affect the aquatic macrophyte Lobelia dortmanna

“…Many sedimentdwelling microorganisms will start respiring SO 4 2-to decompose organic matter when other energetically more favorable electrons acceptors have been depleted (Laanbroek 1990) and the SO 4 2-reduction results in the generation of H 2 S, which is known as a strong phytotoxin (Holmer and Bondgaard 2001). Sulfide lowers photosynthesis (Pezeshki et al 1988;Goodman et al 1995), reduces growth (Koch and Mendelssohn 1989;Holmer and Nielsen 2007;Geurts et al 2009), and ultimately reduces survival (Armstrong et al 1996;Holmer and Bondgaard 2001) of wetland plants and aquatic macrophytes, even at porewater H 2 S concentrations as low as 5 lM (Smolders and Roelofs 1996). In the present study, we did not detect porewater H 2 S concentrations above 0.5 lM at ''SO 4 2-?…”

“…Although isoetids can resist short periods of tissue anoxia (Møller and Sand-Jensen 2011), long periods of tissue hypoxia and/or anoxia may decrease vascular translocation (Sorrell 2004), photosynthetic efficiency and plant growth (Pulido and Borum 2010) and can even cause mortality of sensitive aquatic macrophytes (SandJensen et al 2005a;Raun et al 2010). Moreover, under reduced conditions, SO 4 2-is converted to sulfide which is known to be highly phytotoxic (Koch and Mendelssohn 1989;Goodman et al 1995;Holmer and Bondgaard 2001;Geurts et al 2009). …”