Asset Details
Do you wish to reserve the book?
Shoreline Development Drives Invasion of Phragmites australis and the Loss of Plant Diversity on New England Salt Marshes
Hey, we have placed the reservation for you!
By the way, why not check out events that you can attend while you pick your title.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place the reservation. Kindly try again later.
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
Shoreline Development Drives Invasion of Phragmites australis and the Loss of Plant Diversity on New England Salt Marshes
Do you wish to request the book?
Shoreline Development Drives Invasion of Phragmites australis and the Loss of Plant Diversity on New England Salt Marshes
Please be aware that the book you have requested cannot be checked out. If you would like to checkout this book, you can reserve another copy
We have requested the book for you!
Your request is successful and it will be processed during the Library working hours. Please check the status of your request in My Requests.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place your request. Kindly try again later.
Journal Article
Shoreline Development Drives Invasion of Phragmites australis and the Loss of Plant Diversity on New England Salt Marshes
2004
Overview
The reed Phragmites australis Cav. is aggressively invading salt marshes along the Atlantic Coast of North America. We examined the interactive role of habitat alteration (i.e., shoreline development) in driving this invasion and its consequences for plant richness in New England salt marshes. We surveyed 22 salt marshes in Narragansett Bay Rhode Island, and quantified shoreline development, Phragmites cover, soil salinity, and nitrogen availability. Shoreline development, operationally defined as removal of the woody vegetation bordering marshes, explained >90% of intermarsh variation in Phragmites cover. Shoreline development was also significantly correlated with reduced soil salinities and increased nitrogen availability, suggesting that removing woody vegetation bordering marshes increases nitrogen availability and decreases soil salinities, thus facilitating Phragmites invasion. Soil salinity (64%) and nitrogen availability (56%) alone explained a large proportion of variation in Phragmites cover, but together they explained 80% of the variation in Phragmites invasion success. Both univariate and aggregate (multidimensional scaling) analyses of plant community composition revealed that Phragmites dominance in developed salt marshes resulted in an almost three-fold decrease in plant species richness. Our findings illustrate the importance of maintaining integrity of habitat borders in conserving natural communities and provide an example of the critical role that local conservation can play in preserving these systems. In addition, our findings provide ecologists and natural resource managers with a mechanistic understanding of how human habitat alteration in one vegetation community can interact with species introductions in adjacent communities (i.e., flow-on or adjacency effects) to hasten ecosystem degradation.
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing Inc,Blackwell Science,Blackwell
Subject
/ Animal, plant and microbial ecology
/ Biological and medical sciences
/ Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife
/ Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
/ human and shoreline development
/ interrelaciones ecosistémicas
/ marismas
/ Marshes
/ Nitrogen
/ Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking
/ Plants
