Long-term invasion dynamics of Spartina increase vegetation diversity and geomorphological resistance of salt marshes ag
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Long-term invasion dynamics of Spartina increase vegetation diversity and geomorphological resistance of salt marshes against sea level rise Dirk Granse
. Sigrid Suchrow . Kai Jensen
Received: 7 June 2020 / Accepted: 28 October 2020 Ó The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The cordgrass Spartina anglica C.E. Hubbard (Poaceae) is an invasive transformer in many salt marsh ecosystems worldwide. Relatively little is known about the capacity of Spartina to accelerate salt marsh succession and to protect salt marshes against sea level rise. We analyzed long-term changes in vegetation and elevation in mainland salt marshes of the European Wadden Sea in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, to estimate the impact of non-native Spartina on the geomorphological resistance of salt marshes to sea level rise and on changes in species diversity. From 1989 to 2019, the Spartina-zone shifted and expanded upwards to elevations of the high marsh zone and Spartina increased in frequency in several salt marsh vegetation communities. At sites where Spartina dominated the vegetation already three decades ago, elevation and species diversity increased with a higher rate compared to sites lacking Spartina. The median change rates reached for elevation MHT ?8.6 versus ?1.5 mm per year, for species richness ?3 versus 0 species per three decades, and for evenness ?0.04 versus -0.08 per
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02408-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. D. Granse (&) S. Suchrow K. Jensen Applied Plant Ecology, Institute of Plant Science and Microbiology, Universita¨t Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany e-mail: [email protected]
three decades, regarding plots with versus without former Spartina dominance, respectively. Invasion of salt marshes by Spartina and its continued, long-term presence were associated with increased elevation and species diversity in the face of sea level rise. Keywords Accretion Ecological amplitude Ecosystem functioning Elevational range Species diversity Spartina Sporobolus
Introduction Introductions of non-native Spartina anglica C.E. Hubbard (common cordgrass) profoundly affect coastal ecosystems and their native species communities (e.g., Partridge 1987; Hedge and Kriwoken 2000; Hacker et al. 2001; Raybould 2005; Sheehan and Ellison 2014). Spartina anglica is the genomeduplicated descendent of the F1 -hybrid Spartina townsendii H. Groves & J. Groves which emerged from hybridization of Spartina maritima (Curtis) Fernald and Spartina alterniflora Loiseleur in the 19th century in Britain (Marchant 1967). These taxa belong to a monophyletic lineage of Spartina that was recently included in the genus Sporobolus (Peterson et al. 2014). Spartina townsendii and Spartina anglica, in the following synonymously referred as Spartina, were valued for the capacity to catch and
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stabilize tidal sediments (Ranwell 1967
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