Journal
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 766, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144254
Keywords
Top-down control; Salinity; Precipitation; Environmental change; Coastal wetland; Common reed
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31971504]
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences [2018247]
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Consumers are often overlooked as key drivers of vegetation structure and ecosystem functioning in coastal wetlands in Asia. This study highlights the significant role that crab herbivores can play in regulating Phragmites in Yellow River Delta salt marshes, especially under environmental stress.
Consumers are often overlooked as key drivers of vegetation structure and ecosystem functioning in coastal wetlands.This oversight is particularly apparent in Asia, where much of the variation in coastal wetland plant growth and composition is attributed to physical stress gradients. To address this knowledge gap and quantify the relative importance of consumers in Asian coastal wetlands across temporal variation in environmental stress, we conducted a two-year experiment spanning relatively spring wet (2018) and spring thy (2019) years in which we manipulated the presence of the numerically dominant herbivorous crab, Hence tientsinensis, and evaluated its effects on Phragmites australis growth and structure in a Yellow River Delta salt marsh. In spring wetter 2018, Phragmites biomass and stem density were 75% and 34% higher in Crab Exclusion relative to Ambient Crab plots. In 2019 which experienced spring drought and elevated soil salinity, Phragmites biomass and stem density remained similarly high relative to 2018 in Crab Exclusion plots, but fell further, to only 16% and 39% of levels of 2018 observed in Ambient Crab plots. Phragmites' inflorescences density was also significantly reduced in Ambient Crab than Crab Exclusion plots in 2019. Together, these results highlight the significant role that crab herbivores can play in regulating Phragmites in Yellow River Delta salt marshes and suggest that the magnitude of their top-down control may be amplified, although in a non-additive manner, with spring drought stress in the region. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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