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Multi-scale segregations and edaphic determinants of marsh plant communities in a western Pacific estuary

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Abstract

Whether and how the roles of environmental factors in producing vegetation patterns in coastal marshes vary with spatial scale is not well understood. We investigated the relationship between plant communities and edaphic factors in the Yangtze estuary at three spatial scales. Plant communities and edaphic factors were quantified at high and low tidal levels in both freshwater and salt marshes. Canonical correspondence analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between plant communities and edaphic factors at the landscape scale (freshwater vs. salt marsh), the zonation scale (high vs. low tidal level) and the patch scale (dominant vs. other species). Soil salinity, moisture content, pH, bulk density, and organic carbon could well explain segregations of plants at the landscape and zonation scales. However, the same factors exhibited only very weak relationships to plant communities at the patch scale. These results suggest that plant communities in the Yangtze estuary are segregated at different spatial scales by different environmental factors. As spatial scale is often not explicitly addressed investigating community assembly rules, our study underscores the importance of scaling for an improved understanding of community organization in coastal wetlands.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Cheng-Huan Wang and Qiang Yang for field help and discussion, Guo-Xian Song for access to the study sites, and two anonymous reviewers for critical comments. This study was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (U0833002), National Key Basic Research Program of China (2006CB403303) and China National Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists (51125035).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOA Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture (South), School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Qiang He, Fanyi Chen & Yuan An

  2. State Key Laboratory of Water Environmental Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Baoshan Cui

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  1. Qiang He
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Correspondence to Yuan An.

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Handling editor: K. W. Krauss

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He, Q., Chen, F., Cui, B. et al. Multi-scale segregations and edaphic determinants of marsh plant communities in a western Pacific estuary. Hydrobiologia 696, 171–183 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1191-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1191-0

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