Journal
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
Volume 17, Issue 5, Pages 606-618Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-100X.2008.00426.x
Keywords
Cape Cod; Phragmites; plant community; salt marsh; Spartina; tidal restoration; vegetation
Categories
Funding
- National Park Service
- CCNS
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Hydrologic restoration of Hatches Harbor, a tide-restricted marsh on Cape Cod (Massachusetts), has resulted in significant plant community changes 7 years following the reintroduction of seawater. Since 1999, incremental increases in flow through a tide-restricting dike have facilitated the rapid decline of salt-intolerant vegetation, while encouraging the expansion of native salt marsh taxa. These changes show strong spatial gradients and are correlated with marsh surface elevation, distance from the point of seawater entry, and porewater salinity. Common reed (Phragmites australis) has not decreased in abundance but has migrated a considerable distance upslope. In the wake of this retreat native halophytes have proliferated. Now that maximum flow through the existing dike structure has been reached, continued recovery may be limited less by changing physicochemical conditions and more by rates of growth, seed dispersal, and seed germination of salt marsh taxa.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available