You are here:
Rapid peat development beneath maturing mangrove forests: quantifying ecosystem changes along a 25-year chronosequence of created coastal wetlands
Citation:
Osland, M., L. Feher, A. Spivak, J. Nestlerode, A. Almario, N. Cormier, A. From, K. Krauss, M. Russell, F. Alvarez, D. Dantin, J. Harvey, AND C. Stagg. Rapid peat development beneath maturing mangrove forests: quantifying ecosystem changes along a 25-year chronosequence of created coastal wetlands. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS. Ecological Society of America, Ithaca, NY, 30(4):12, (2020). https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2085
Impact/Purpose:
There is an urgent need to advance understanding of the trajectory of mangrove ecosystem development following restoration, and to better quantify the amount of time it takes for restored and created wetland ecosystems to become functionally equivalent to their natural counterparts. Here, we investigated ecosystem development across a 25-year chronosequence of created mangrove forests in Tampa Bay, Florida, USA and compared plant and soil data from created mangroves to nearby natural reference mangroves. Our data indicate that it takes approximately 44 years for the adult mangrove trees at created wetland sites to become equivalent to their natural mangrove forest counterparts, equivalency in the herbaceous and juvenile vegetation strata can occur in less than 15 years. The comparatively rapid subsurface accumulation of refractory roots leads to rapid elevation gains and soil organic matter accumulation in mangrove forests. Our results indicate that equivalency in the upper soil layer of mangrove forests can occur within approximately 23 years, which is very rapid in comparison to many terrestrial and freshwater wetland ecosystems. These results indicate the rate of soil organic matter change beneath maturing mangrove forests may be among the highest rates documented for any ecosystem on the planet. This work builds upon this team's 2012 manuscript published in the journal Ecosystems by incorporating additional data collected in 2016 from created mangrove sites in Tampa Bay.
Description:
Mangrove forests are among the world’s most productive and carbon-rich ecosystems. In addition to providing important fish and wildlife habitat and supporting coastal food webs, these coastal wetlands provide many ecosystem goods and services including clean water, stable coastlines, food, recreational opportunities, and stored carbon. Despite a growing understanding of the factors controlling mangrove soil carbon stocks, there is a pressing need to advance understanding of the pace of peat development beneath maturing mangroves - especially in created and restored mangroves, which are often intended to compensate for ecosystem functions lost during mangrove conversion to other land uses. To better quantify the rate of soil organic matter development beneath created, maturing mangroves, we measured ecosystem changes along a 25-year chronosequence in Tampa Bay Florida (USA). We compared ecosystem properties in created mangroves to adjacent natural mangroves. We also quantified site-specific changes that occurred between 2010 and 2016. Our objective was to advance understanding of the pace of ecosystem development in created, maturing mangrove forests. This information can improve predictions of mangrove responses to global change and ecosystem restoration.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Rapid peat development beneath maturing mangrove forests: quantifying ecosystem changes along a 25-year chronosequence of created coastal wetlands