Spatially-dependent patterns of plant recovery and sediment accretion following multiple disturbances in a Gulf Coast tidal marsh

Coastal wetlands are projected to experience increases in anthropogenic and climatic disturbances, which may alter plant-sediment feedbacks critical for maintaining marsh resilience to sea level. To study the effects of disturbance on ecogeomorphic processes, we examined aboveground plant responses...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Wetlands ecology and management 2019-06, Vol.27 (2-3), p.377-392
Main Authors:	Braswell, Anna E., May, Christopher A., Cherry, Julia A.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Accretion Anthropogenic factors Biomass Biomass burning Biomedical and Life Sciences Brackishwater environment Coastal marshes Coastal zone management Coasts Conservation Biology/Ecology Dependent variables Deposition Disturbance Disturbances Elevation Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice Estuaries Estuarine environments Fires Freshwater & Marine Ecology Habitat selection Hurricanes Hydrology/Water Resources Life Sciences Marine & Freshwater Sciences Marshes Organic matter Original Paper Recovery Sea level Sediment Sediments Shorelines Soil Soil erosion Soil surfaces Tidal marshes Water Quality/Water Pollution Wetlands
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Summary:	Coastal wetlands are projected to experience increases in anthropogenic and climatic disturbances, which may alter plant-sediment feedbacks critical for maintaining marsh resilience to sea level. To study the effects of disturbance on ecogeomorphic processes, we examined aboveground plant responses and sediment accretion in three locations relative to the shoreline (low, mid, and high) within a tidal marsh at Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Mississippi, USA. This study site was affected by two hurricanes in the fall of 2008, and subsequently burned as part of a controlled experiment in January 2009, permitting examination of the effects of two disturbance types on aboveground plant responses and vertical accretion. Fire and hurricanes affected these response variables differently, with effects dependent on location within the marsh. Fire significantly reduced standing aboveground biomass, and subsequent recovery of vegetation relative to pre-burn levels was faster in low marsh plots nearest to the shore than in high marsh plots closest to the marsh-pine ecotone. Hurricanes introduced sediment to the marsh platform, resulting in greater accretion in low marsh plots that had more standing biomass and higher stem densities than high marsh plots. Collectively, these results demonstrate that disturbances can heterogeneously affect surface soil-building processes in marshes through effects on sediment and organic matter accumulation, which may have important consequences for surface elevation maintenance in coastal marshes.
ISSN:	0923-4861 1572-9834