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Modeling Emergent Macrophyte Distributions: Including Sub-dominant Species
Citation:
CHRISTENSEN, J. R., A. G. van der Valk, W. G. Crumpton, AND R. Grosshans. Modeling Emergent Macrophyte Distributions: Including Sub-dominant Species. Presented at Annual Meeting for Society of Wetland Scientists, Madison, WI, June 22, 2009 - June 29, 3009.
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation
Description:
Mixed stands of emergent vegetation are often present following drawdowns but models of wetland plant distributions fail to include subdominant species when predicting distributions. Three variations of a spatial plant distribution cellular automaton model were developed to explore the importance of subdominant emergent species; a dominantonly model (D), a subdominant model (SD), and a ubiquitous subdominant model (USD). The three model variations were applied to experimental marshes in Delta Marsh, Canada. Predictions from the models were compared with actual distributions of three common emergent species (Typha glauca (Godr.), Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin., and Scolochloa festucacea (Willd.) Link, after 2, 4, and 12 years of stable water levels. The Typha distributions showed the greatest differences between models. The SD model most closely tracked observed distributions of Typha after 2 and 4 years while the D and USD models under and over-predicted distributions respectively. After 12 years, Typha was the dominant species in the marshes and the SD and USD matched observed distributions. The D model continued to under-predict Typha distributions. The models did not differ for Scolochloa and had good agreement with the observed distributions after 12 years. Phragmites distributions were underestimated by all the models. The plant distribution model illustrates the importance of including subdominant species and highlights the need to better understand species long-term tolerance responses to stabilized water levels.