Marsh macrophyte responses to inundation anticipate impacts of sea-level rise and indicate ongoing drowning of North Carolina marshes
Author
Voss, Christine M.; Christian, Robert R.; Morris, James T.
Abstract
In situ persistence of coastal marsh habitat as sea level rises depends on whether macrophytes induce compensatory accretion of the marsh surface. Experimental planters in two North Carolina marshes served to expose two dominant macrophyte species to six different elevations spanning 0.75 m (inundation durations 0.4-99 %). and exhibited similar responses-with production in planters suggesting initial increases and then demonstrating subsequent steep declines with increasing inundation, conforming to a segment of the ecophysiological parabola. Projecting inundation levels experienced by macrophytes in the planters onto adjacent marsh platforms revealed that neither species occupied elevations associated with increasing production. Declining macrophyte production with rising seas reduces both bioaccumulation of roots below-ground and baffle-induced sedimentation above-ground. By occupying only descending portions of the parabola, macrophytes in central North Carolina marshes are responding to rising water levels by progressive declines in production, ultimately leading to marsh drowning.
Date
2013-01-01
Citation:
APA:
Voss, Christine M., & Christian, Robert R., & Morris, James T.. (January 2013).
Marsh macrophyte responses to inundation anticipate impacts of sea-level rise and indicate ongoing drowning of North Carolina marshes.
Marine Biology,
(160:1), p.181 - 194. Retrieved from
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/7772
MLA:
Voss, Christine M., and Christian, Robert R., and Morris, James T..
"Marsh macrophyte responses to inundation anticipate impacts of sea-level rise and indicate ongoing drowning of North Carolina marshes". Marine Biology.
160:1. (181 - 194.),
January 2013.
August 10, 2022.
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/7772.
Chicago:
Voss, Christine M. and Christian, Robert R. and Morris, James T.,
"Marsh macrophyte responses to inundation anticipate impacts of sea-level rise and indicate ongoing drowning of North Carolina marshes," Marine Biology 160, no.
1 (January 2013),
http://hdl.handle.net/10342/7772 (accessed
August 10, 2022).
AMA:
Voss, Christine M., Christian, Robert R., Morris, James T..
Marsh macrophyte responses to inundation anticipate impacts of sea-level rise and indicate ongoing drowning of North Carolina marshes. Marine Biology.
January 2013;
160(1)
181 - 194. http://hdl.handle.net/10342/7772. Accessed
August 10, 2022.
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