Soil Salinity Impacts Future Community Composition of Coastal Forests
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WETLANDS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Soil Salinity Impacts Future Community Composition of Coastal Forests Natasha N. Woods 1,2
&
Jenise L. Swall 3 & Julie C. Zinnert 1
Received: 16 May 2019 / Accepted: 16 April 2020 # Society of Wetland Scientists 2020
Abstract With projected increase in storms, sea-level rise and saltwater intrusion in low-lying terrestrial areas, compositional changes that favor more salt tolerant species are likely to occur. Wetland species are expanding into declining forested communities, primarily dominated by trees. Higher salinities for germination may preclude establishment of tree species. We examined the capacity for coastal tree species (Acer rubrum, Liquidambar styraciflua, Pinus taeda, Celtis occidentalis, Persea borbonia) and a wetland shrub (Morella cerifera) to germinate at salinity concentrations of 0, 2, 5, 10, and 20 ppt. A growth chamber experiment was established examining the effect of salinity on germination of common species found in mixed forests throughout the midAtlantic coastal plain and Gulf of Mexico, USA. The study revealed that regeneration from seed will be difficult for most of the selected species at salinities >5 ppt with implications for community composition with continued saltwater intrusion. Germination of A. rubrum was not impacted at higher salinities, with Pinus taeda not as affected other species. Morella cerifera did not have an advantage at the germination stage over selected tree species. Knowing threshold limits of germination response to salinity is critical for identifying future community trajectories. Keywords Germination . Regeneration . Saltwater intrusion . Sea-level rise . Morella cerifera
Introduction Factors that facilitate the formation of ghost forests in coastal ecosystems are on the rise and forests are being replaced by more salt-tolerant communities (Kirwan and Gedan 2019; Fagherazzi et al. 2019). Increases in soil salinity play a major role in forest decline and transitioning at early stages of plant development (Williams 2013). Soil salinity increases in plant communities through several factors such as storm surges, Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-020-01304-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Natasha N. Woods [email protected] 1
Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1000 W. Cary St., Richmond, VA 23284, USA
2
Biological Sciences Department, Moravian College, 1200 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018, USA
3
Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1015 Floyd Avenue, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
drought, salt intrusion through land subsidence, and sealevel rise (Hayden and Hayden 2003; DeSantis et al. 2007; Fernandes et al. 2018; Kirwan et al. 2016; Schieder et al. 2018). The long-term ecological implications for regeneration of forested coastal plant communities is not well understood, particularly in temperate coastal forests (Williams 2013) as plant re
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