Plant Communities of Tasmanian Wetlands

1983 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 437 ◽  
Author(s):  
JB Kirkpatrick ◽  
CE Harwood
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Wetland Vegetation ◽  
Freshwater Wetlands ◽  
Tidal Wetlands ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Wetland Plant ◽  
Wetland Plant Communities ◽  
Floristic Variation

The macrophytic vegetation of Tasmanian wetlands consists of forest, scrub, marginal herbland, tussock sedgeland, sedgeland, reed swamp and aquatic herbland. More than 80 taxa dominate or codominate in at least one division of at least one of the 530 wetlands from which data were obtained. Communities dominated by each of 16 of these taxa occur in 10 or more wetlands and vary in mean richness from 4 to 18 species, richness increasing towards the margins of wetlands, with the area of wetland, and with decreasing salinity. A combination of salinity and permanence indices explains over one-third of the floristic variation between these communities; within freshwater wetlands, pH has more influence than the permanence index. The Tasmanian wetland flora is a subset of that of mainland Australia. Most Tasmanian wetland plant communities probably occur on the Australian mainland. Many of the wetland vegetation types discriminated on the mainland do not occur in Tasmanian non-tidal wetlands.

scholarly journals Palustrine forested wetland vegetation communities change across an elevation gradient, Washington State, USA

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e8903
Author(s):  
Nate Hough-Snee
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Indicator Species ◽  
Elevation Gradient ◽  
Forested Wetlands ◽  
Wetland Vegetation ◽  
Forested Wetland ◽  
Wetland Plant ◽  
Wetland Plant Communities ◽  
Understory Plant

Background Forested wetlands support distinct vegetation and hydrology relative to upland forests and shrub-dominated or open water wetlands. Although forested wetland plant communities comprise unique habitats, these ecosystems’ community structure is not well documented in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Here I surveyed forested wetland vegetation to identify changes in community composition and structure across an elevation gradient that corresponds to flooding stress, asking: (1) How do forested wetland plant communities change across an elevation gradient that corresponds to flood frequency and duration? (2) At what relative elevations do different plant species occur within a wetland? Methods I measured overstory tree basal area and structure and understory vascular plant composition in three zones: wetland buffers (WB) adjacent to the wetland, an upper wetland (UW) extent, and a lower wetland (LW) extent, surveying individual trees’ root collar elevation relative to the wetland ordinary high-water mark (OHWM). I estimated understory plant species abundance in sub-plots and surveyed these plots’ height above the OHWM. I used non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination to identify patterns in vegetation communities relative to wetland elevation, and tested for compositional differences between the WB, UW and LW zones using PERMANOVA. I calculated overstory and understory indicator species for each wetland zone using indicator species analysis. Results Forest overstory composition changed across the elevation gradient, with broad-leaved trees occupying a distinct hydrologic niche in low-lying areas close to the OHWM. Conifer species occurred higher above the OHWM on drier microsites. Pseudotsuga menziesii (mean elevation = 0.881 m) and Tsuga heterophylla (mean elevation = 1.737 m) were overstory indicator species of the WB, while Fraxinus latifolia (mean elevation = 0.005 m) was an overstory indicator for the upper and lower wetland. Understory vegetation differed between zones and lower zones’ indicator species were generally hydrophytic species with adaptations that allow them to tolerate flooding stress at lower elevations. Average elevations above the OHWM are reported for 19 overstory trees and 61 understory plant species. By quantifying forested wetland plant species’ affinities for different habitats across an inundation gradient, this study illustrates how rarely flooded, forested WB vegetation differs from frequently flooded, LW vegetation. Because common management applications, like restoring forested wetlands and managing wetland responses to forest harvest, are both predicated upon understanding how vegetation relates to hydrology, these data on where different species might establish and persist along an inundation gradient may be useful in planning for anticipated forested wetland responses to restoration and disturbance.

scholarly journals Diversity of plant assemblages dampens the variability of the growing season phenology in wetland landscapes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Rheault ◽  
Esther Lévesque ◽  
Raphaël Proulx
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Edaphic Factors ◽  
Wetland Plant ◽  
Global Functioning ◽  
Growing Season Length ◽  
Wetland Plant Communities ◽  
Plant Assemblage ◽  
Plant Assemblages

Abstract Background: The functioning of ecosystems is highly variable through space and time. Climatic and edaphic factors are forcing ecological communities to converge, whereas the diversity of plant assemblages dampens these effects by allowing communities’ dynamics to diverge. This study evaluated whether the growing season phenology of wetland plant communities within landscapes is determined by the climatic/edaphic factors of contrasted regions, by the species richness of plant communities, or by the diversity of plant assemblages. From 2013 to 2016, we monitored the phenology and floristic composition of 118 wetland plant communities across five landscapes distributed along a gradient of edaphic and climatic conditions in the Province of Québec, Canada. Results: The growing season phenology of wetlands was driven by differences among plant assemblage within landscapes, and not by the species richness of each individual community (<1% of the explained variation). Variation in the growing season length of wetlands reflected the destabilizing effect of climatic and edaphic factors on green-up dates, which is opposed to the dampening effect of plant assemblage diversity on green-down dates. Conclusions: The latter dampening effect may be particularly important in the context of increasing anthropogenic activities, which are predicted to impair the ability of wetlands to adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions. Our findings suggest that stakeholders should not necessarily consider local monospecific plant communities of lower conservation value to the global functioning of wetland ecosystems.

scholarly journals Wetland Vegetation of the Northern Range, Yellowstone National Park: Classification, Succession, and Environmental Relationships

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 169-171
Author(s):  
Robert Pfister ◽  
Paul Hansen ◽  
Steve Chadde
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Yellowstone National Park ◽  
National Park ◽  
Wetland Vegetation ◽  
Wetland Plant ◽  
Environmental Relationships ◽  
Wetland Plant Communities

A 3-year study of the wetland plant communities of the northern range of Yellowstone National Park was initiated in May, 1985. This report covers activities during calendar year 1987.

scholarly journals Diversity of plant assemblages dampens the variability of the growing season phenology in wetland landscapes

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Rheault ◽  
Esther Lévesque ◽  
Raphaël Proulx
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Edaphic Factors ◽  
Wetland Plant ◽  
Global Functioning ◽  
Growing Season Length ◽  
Wetland Plant Communities ◽  
Plant Assemblage ◽  
Plant Assemblages

Abstract Background The functioning of ecosystems is highly variable through space and time. Climatic and edaphic factors are forcing ecological communities to converge, whereas the diversity of plant assemblages dampens these effects by allowing communities’ dynamics to diverge. This study evaluated whether the growing season phenology of wetland plant communities within landscapes is determined by the climatic/edaphic factors of contrasted regions, by the species richness of plant communities, or by the diversity of plant assemblages. From 2013 to 2016, we monitored the phenology and floristic composition of 118 wetland plant communities across five landscapes distributed along a gradient of edaphic and climatic conditions in the Province of Québec, Canada. Results The growing season phenology of wetlands was driven by differences among plant assemblage within landscapes, and not by the species richness of each individual community (< 1% of the explained variation). Variation in the growing season length of wetlands reflected the destabilizing effect of climatic and edaphic factors on green-up dates, which is opposed to the dampening effect of plant assemblage diversity on green-down dates. Conclusions The latter dampening effect may be particularly important in the context of increasing anthropogenic activities, which are predicted to impair the ability of wetlands to adapt to fluctuating environmental conditions. Our findings suggest that stakeholders should not necessarily consider local species-poor plant communities of lower conservation value to the global functioning of wetland ecosystems.

Species richness increases the resilience of wetland plant communities in a tropical floodplain

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 592-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
PRISCILLA CARVALHO ◽  
SIDINEI MAGELA THOMAZ ◽  
JOSILAINE TAECO KOBAYASHI ◽  
LUIS MAURICIO BINI
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Wetland Plant ◽  
Wetland Plant Communities ◽  
Tropical Floodplain

Does hydrological fluctuation alter impacts of species richness on biomass in wetland plant communities?

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang-Li Luo ◽  
Xing-Xing Jiang ◽  
Hong-Li Li ◽  
Fei-Hai Yu
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Wetland Plant ◽  
Wetland Plant Communities

scholarly journals Relationship between Wetland Plant Communities and Environmental Factors in the Tumen River Basin in Northeast China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaojun Zheng ◽  
Jing Fu ◽  
Noelikanto Ramamonjisoa ◽  
Weihong Zhu ◽  
Chunguang He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Properties ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Northeast China ◽  
Floristic Composition ◽  
Available Phosphorus ◽  
Wetland Plant ◽  
Tumen River ◽  
Wetland Plant Communities

Understanding what controls wetland vegetation community composition is vital to conservation and biodiversity management. This study investigates the factors that affect wetland plant communities and distribution in the Tumen River Basin, Northeast China, an internationally important wetland for biodiversity conservation. We recorded floristic composition of herbaceous plants, soil properties, and microclimatic variables in 177, 1 × 1 m2 quadrats at 45 sites, located upstream (26), midstream (12), and downstream (7) of the Basin. We used TWINSPAN to define vegetation communities and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) to examine the relationships between environmental and biological factors within the wetland plant communities. We recorded 100 plant species from 93 genera and 40 families in the upstream, 100 plant species from 57 genera and 31 families in the midstream, and 85 plant species from 76 genera and 38 families in the downstream. Higher species richness was recorded upstream of the River Basin. The plant communities and distribution were influenced by elevation, soil properties (total potassium, pH, and available phosphorus), and microclimate variables (surface temperature, precipitation, average temperature, sunshine hours, and relative humidity). More than any other factor, according to our results, elevation strongly influenced the structure of wetland plant communities. These findings support prevailing models describing the distribution of wetland plants along environmental gradients. The determination of the relationship between soil and plants is a useful way to better understand the ecosystem condition and can help manage the wetland ecosystem.

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