The Potential Impact of Herbivores on the Susceptibility of the Marsh Plant Sagittaria lancifolia to Saltwater Intrusion in Coastal Wetlands

Grace, James B.; Ford, Mark

doi:10.2307/1352647

Cited by 54 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Previous studies evaluated the effects of a 100% flooding treatment vs a saturated soil condition (Mendelssohn et al, 1981;Mendelssohn and McKee, 1983;Koch and Mendelssohn, 1989;Pezeshki and DeLaune, 1993;Lessman et al, 1997), or the effect of changing marsh sod elevation under field conditions resulting in altered flooding stress Webb et al, 1995;Grace and Ford, 1996;Gough and Grace, 1998). In general, these studies show a decrease in primary production with permanent flooding as well as with increased flooding depth.…”

Section: The Effects Of Flooding On Four Common Louisiana Marsh Plantmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Flooding on Four Common Louisiana Marsh Plants

Visser

Sandy²

2009

goms

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Section: The Effects Of Flooding On Four Common Louisiana Marsh Plantmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Flooding on Four Common Louisiana Marsh Plants

Visser

Sandy²

2009

goms

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“…Twenty major storms have been observed to impact the vicinity of the lower Pearl River during the last 90 years. Experimental studies of the effects of salinity on marsh plants indicate that effects on plant communities are driven by both long-term average effects and short-term extreme events (Grace & Ford, 1996;Howard & Mendelssohn, 1998. Previous studies of the relationship between salinity regimes and plant communities provide support for the hypothesis that periodic saltwater intrusions produced by storms act to leave lasting effects on the plant communities (McKee & Mendelssohn, 1989;Brewer & Grace, 1990;Taylor, Grace & Marx, 1997;Ford & Grace, 1998b).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of landscape position on plant species density: Evidence of past environmental effects in a coastal wetland

Grace

Guntenspergen

1999

Écoscience

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The study of small-scale species density has attracted considerable attention over the past two decades (Grime, ). This attention has been driven in large part by a persistent interest in the processes believed to regulate species density; namely, competition, colonization, disturbance, stress, and facilitation. Studies of species density have examined a number of the processes thought to be involved, Abstract: Here we propose that an important cause of variation in species density may be prior environmental conditions that continue to influence current patterns. In this paper we investigated the degree to which species density varies with location within the landscape, independent of contemporaneous environmental conditions. The area studied was a coastal marsh landscape subject to periodic storm events. To evaluate the impact of historical effects, it was assumed that the landscape position of a plot relative to the river's mouth ("distance from sea") and to the edge of a stream channel ("distance from shore") would correlate with the impact of prior storm events, an assumption supported by previous studies. To evaluate the importance of spatial location on species density, data were collected from five sites located at increasing distances from the river's mouth along the Middle Pearl River in Louisiana. At each site, plots were established systematically along transects perpendicular to the shoreline. For each of the 175 plots, we measured elevation, soil salinity, percent of plot recently disturbed, percent of sunlight captured by the plant canopy (as a measure of plant abundance), and plant species density. Structural equation analysis ascertained the degree to which landscape position variables explained variation in species density that could not be explained by current environmental indicators. Without considering landscape variables, 54% of the variation in species density could be explained by the effects of salinity, flooding, and plant abundance. When landscape variables were included, distance from shore was unimportant but distance from sea explained an additional 12% of the variance in species density (R 2 of final model = 66%). Based on these results it appears that at least some of the otherwise unexplained variation in species density can be attributed to landscape position, and presumably previous storm events. We suggest that future studies may gain additional insight into the factors controlling current patterns of species density by examining the effects of position within the landscape.Résumé : Les auteurs estiment qu'une cause importante des variations de la densité des espèces a trait aux conditions environnementales passées qui continuent d'influencer les patrons actuels. Dans cet article, nous examinons le degré avec lequel la densité des espèces varie en fonction de la localisation, indépendamment des conditions environnementales actuelles. Le site à l'étude est un marais côtier de la Louisiane sujet à des tempêtes périodiques. Afin d'évaluer l'impact des facteurs historiques, nous a...

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“…The freshening of the system in 1984 might be related to the large 1983 flood of the Mississippi River system that brought large amounts of fresh water into the study area through the Atchafalaya River. Salinity does negatively affect the growth of Sagittaria tancifolia (McKee andMendelssohn 1989, Grace andFord 1996), and Spartina patens is generally found in mesohaline to oligohaline marshes (Mitsch and Gosselink 1993). David (1996) showed that increasing water levels lead to increasing abundance of Sagittaria lancifolia in the Florida Everglades without changes in salinity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term vegetation change in Louisiana tidal marshes, 1968–1992

et al. 1999

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The Louisiana coastal marshes form some of the most extensive wetlands within the continental United States. The problem of land loss in these coastal marshes is well-documented, but very little is known about possible changes in vegetation composition that might be associated with this loss. We analyzed vegetation data collected from 1968 to 1992 in the tidal wetlands of Terrebonne parish and described five vegetation types that occur in this region. Our data did not show the predicted change to more salt-tolerant vegetation. This is probably due to the influence of the Atchafalaya River in the study area. However, we documented a large change in the dominant vegetation of the fresh marsh. Panicum hemitornon-dominated marshes occupied 51% of the study area in 1968 and only 14% in 1992. This vegetation type was replaced with Eleocharis baldwinii-domJnated marshes (3% in 1968 to 41% in 1992). This change occurred adjacent to an area of significant conversion to open water. Based on limited available data from the literature, we ev',duated three potential driving factors in this change-grazing, water-level increase, and water quality-but could not determine the cause of change definitively.

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The Potential Impact of Herbivores on the Susceptibility of the Marsh Plant Sagittaria lancifolia to Saltwater Intrusion in Coastal Wetlands

Cited by 54 publications

References 21 publications

The Effects of Flooding on Four Common Louisiana Marsh Plants

The Effects of Flooding on Four Common Louisiana Marsh Plants

The effects of landscape position on plant species density: Evidence of past environmental effects in a coastal wetland

Long-term vegetation change in Louisiana tidal marshes, 1968–1992

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