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Effects of soil salinity characteristics on three habitats in inland salt marshes

  • Regular Paper – Ecology/Ecophysiology/Environmental Biology
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Abstract

Understanding the effect of soil salinity on the diversity and species distribution of plant communities in inland salt marsh ecosystems could provide solutions for the management of regional saline soils and the protection of salt marsh wetland vegetation. A field experiment in succulent halophyte, Carex, and gramineous grass habitats in Ordos, Inner Mongolia (northwest China) was conducted to study the diversity and composition of plants in different saline habitats in inland salt marsh ecosystems. Results showed that plant diversity and species richness in the Carex habitat were significantly higher than the succulent halophyte habitat and the gramineous grass habitat (P < 0.05). Further, species abundance was higher in the succulent halophyte habitat and the Carex habitat than the gramineous grass habitat. Similar results were obtained when considering the abundance of constructive species. No significant differences in the abundance of dominant species and companion species between the gramineous grass habitat and the Carex habitat were found. We concluded that species abundance, species richness, species distribution, and plant diversity together explained the response of plant communities in different habitats to soil salinity, especially Na+ and SO42−. This highlights the importance of soil salinity for the maintenance of plant diversity and structural composition in inland salt marsh ecosystems.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge members of the research team for their assistance with the field and laboratory work.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number 41761102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Restoration and Reconstruction of Degraded Ecosystem in Northwestern China of Ministry of Education, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, 750021, China

    Qiao Cui, Tonghui He, Anning Zhang, Yanqiong Feng, Xiangquan Chen & Yushi He

  2. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, 750021, China

    Xiaosai Quan

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  1. Qiao Cui
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  2. Tonghui He
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  3. Anning Zhang
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  4. Xiaosai Quan
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  5. Yanqiong Feng
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  7. Yushi He
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and data analysis were performed by TH, AZ, XQ, YF, XC and YH. The first draft of the manuscript was written by QC, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tonghui He.

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Cui, Q., He, T., Zhang, A. et al. Effects of soil salinity characteristics on three habitats in inland salt marshes. J Plant Res 134, 1037–1046 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-021-01328-x

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