Where do you draw the line? Determining the transition thresholds between estuarine salt marshes and terrestrial vegetation

Veldkornet, D.A.; Adams, Janine B.; Potts, Alastair J.

doi:10.1016/j.sajb.2015.05.003

Cited by 26 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Readily available additional spatial information on elevation (e.g., SRTM, ASTER or LIDAR data) could also help to define an upland boundary. Veldkornet et al (2015) [57] found that terrestrial vegetation occurred mostly above 2.5 m above sea level in South African estuaries. However, this may not work in all sites.…”

Section: Evaluation Of Saltmarsh Trend Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in the Seaward Extent of Saltmarshes across Europe from Long-Term Satellite Data

2019

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Saltmarshes provide crucial functions for flora, fauna, and humankind. Thus far, studies of their dynamics and response to environmental drivers are limited in space and time. Satellite data allow for looking at saltmarshes on a large scale and over a long time period. We developed an unsupervised decision tree classification method to classify satellite images into saltmarsh vegetation, mudflat and open water, integrating additional land cover information. By using consecutive stacks of three years, we considered trends while taking into account water level variations. We used Landsat 5 TM data but found that other satellite data can be used as well. Classification performance for different periods of the Western Scheldt was almost perfect for this site, with overall accuracies above 90% and Kappa coefficients of over 0.85. Sensitivity analysis characterizes the method as being robust. Generated time series for 125 sites across Europe show saltmarsh area changes between 1986 and 2010. The method also worked using a global approach for these sites. We reveal transitions between saltmarsh, mudflat and open water, both at the saltmarsh lower edge and interior, but our method cannot detect changes at the saltmarsh-upland boundary. Resulting trends in saltmarsh dynamics can be coupled to environmental drivers, such as sea level, tidal currents, waves, and sediment availability.

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Section: Evaluation Of Saltmarsh Trend Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in the Seaward Extent of Saltmarshes across Europe from Long-Term Satellite Data

2019

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“…Similar to previous studies (Cui et al ., ; Veldkornet et al ., ), our results suggest that the location of the border between the marsh and the upland depends on what parameter you are examining. For example, our point E was clearly marsh‐like in some aspects but not in others: Point E experienced tidal inundation every 24 days (on average) over the last 10 years, but also repeatedly experienced dry periods lasting more than 3 months.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two points were positioned in the marsh proper, at flooding frequencies of 55% (A) and 33% (B), while three points were positioned in the migration zone, at flooding frequencies of 17% (C), 7.4% (D), and 2.2% (E). At each point, we sampled edaphic and biological parameters ( Table 2) that are often used to define the existence of tidal marsh (e.g., Cui et al, 2011;Reddy et al, 2013;Tiner, 2013;Veldkornet et al, 2015).…”

Section: Point Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upslope development of a tidal marsh as a function of upland land use

Anisfeld

Cooper

Kemp

2016

Global Change Biology

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To thrive in a time of rapid sea-level rise, tidal marshes will need to migrate upslope into adjacent uplands. Yet little is known about the mechanics of this process, especially in urbanized estuaries, where the adjacent upland is likely to be a mowed lawn rather than a wooded natural area. We studied marsh migration in a Long Island Sound salt marsh using detailed hydrologic, edaphic, and biotic sampling along marsh-to-upland transects in both wooded and lawn environments. We found that the overall pace of marsh development was largely unaffected by whether the upland being invaded was lawn or wooded, but the marsh-edge plant communities that developed in these two environments were quite different, and some indicators (soil salinity, foraminifera) appeared to migrate more easily into lawns. In addition, we found that different aspects of marsh structure and function migrated at different rates: Wetland vegetation appeared to be a leading indicator of marsh migration, while soil characteristics such as redox potential and surface salinity developed later in the process. We defined a 'hydrologic migration zone', consisting of elevations that experience tidal inundation with frequencies ranging from 20% to 0.5% of high tides. This hydrologically defined zone - which extended to an elevation higher than the highest astronomical tide datum - captured the biotic and edaphic marsh-upland ecotone. Tidal inundation at the upper border of this migration zone is highly variable over time and may be rising more rapidly than mean sea level. Our results indicate that land management practices at the upland periphery of tidal marshes can facilitate or impede ecosystem migration in response to rising sea level. These findings are applicable to large areas of tidal marsh along the U.S. Atlantic coast and in other urbanized coastal settings.

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“…Salt marsh species are adapted to coping with stressors including salt stress (Veldhuis, Schrama, Staal, & Elzenga, 2018), and the distribution of salt marsh vegetation is primarily limited by competition (Veldkornet, Adams, & Potts, 2015). At increasingly extreme edaphic conditions, abiotic stressors, such as an increased salinity, will limit the distribution of non-salt marsh vegetation due to their decreased competitive advantage compared to salt marsh species (Veldkornet et al, 2015). This could explain the increase in the number of salt marsh species during the dry conditions despite the general decrease in species richness.…”

Section: Vegetation Cover Species Richness Species Composition Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Turnover and change in plant species composition in a shielded salt marsh following variation in precipitation and temperature

Andersen

Skærbæk

Sørensen

et al. 2020

J Vegetation Science

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Questions: Temperature and precipitation variation between years may affect plant species composition directly or indirectly. We wish to investigate whether salt marsh edaphic conditions and plant species composition change as a result of climatic variation. Further, whether areas with the largest edaphic variations also experience the largest change in species composition and turnover. Finally, do temperature and precipitation variations change the way the plant community is able to respond to natural edaphic gradients? Location: Bygholmengen, a shielded salt marsh in Vejlerne, Denmark, Northern Europe. Methods: Botanical surveys were conducted and soil samples collected from 40 plots during a wet and dry summer to register changes in vegetation cover, species richness composition and edaphic factors (moisture, nutrients, salinity). These data were used to calculate dissimilarities in species composition, temporal turnover and environmental dissimilarity between years. A linear mixed-effects model was used to link species richness with the measured edaphic factors.Results: We found that the precipitation and temperature variations altered the edaphic conditions; furthermore, the vegetation cover and species richness decreased when conditions were dry whereas the number of salt marsh species increased. Further, species composition changed significantly between years, and sampling plots that experienced the least edaphic change also retained more species between years. Species richness responded more to changes in nutrient availability during wet than dry conditions. Conclusion: Our results pointed toward the climatic variations, and subsequent change in edaphic conditions, being responsible for the significant change in species composition as areas with the least change in edaphic factors retained most species between years. Dry conditions favored salt marsh-adapted species and the extent to which increased nutrient levels led to a higher species richness decreased in dry compared to wet conditions. K E Y W O R D S biodiversity, coastal habitat, Denmark, environmental dissimilarity, salt meadow, species richness, temporal turnover, vegetation 466 | Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section. Appendix S1. A map of the study site along with images of the area in 2017 and 2018 Appendix S2. List of salt marsh species How to cite this article: Andersen LH, Skaerbaek ASK, Sørensen TB, et al. Turnover and change in plant species composition in a shielded salt marsh following variation in precipitation and temperature. J Veg Sci. 2020;31:465-475.

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Where do you draw the line? Determining the transition thresholds between estuarine salt marshes and terrestrial vegetation

Cited by 26 publications

References 41 publications

Trends in the Seaward Extent of Saltmarshes across Europe from Long-Term Satellite Data

Trends in the Seaward Extent of Saltmarshes across Europe from Long-Term Satellite Data

Upslope development of a tidal marsh as a function of upland land use

Turnover and change in plant species composition in a shielded salt marsh following variation in precipitation and temperature

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