Abstract
Spartina anglica (hereafter Spartina) is an invasive perennial marsh grass shifting hydrodynamic regime and sediment characteristics in invaded area, thereby reducing macrobenthic diversity. There have been only a few studies focusing on the patch structure of Spartina according to size and its effects on macrofauna. A field experiment was conducted to identify effects of Spartina patches where they have been introduced no later than 5 years after invasion occurred on macrofauna assemblages in Ganghwa Island, South Korea. The survey area was divided into two sections according to vegetation: (1) Suaeda japonica vegetation from 0 to 60 m away from the levee, and (2) bare mudflat from 60 to 90 m away from the levee. The patch sizes of Spartina were categorized into small (1–4 m2), medium (5–11 m2), and large (13–40 m2) in area with four replicates for each section. The biomass ratio of the belowground and aboveground in the small size patch of Spartina was significantly higher than those in the medium and large size patch of Spartina. It indicated that more resource was allocated to rhizomes in small size patch with short invasion history (1 ~ 2 years). After Spartina invaded, macrofauna richness (70%), Shannon–Wiener diversity (80%), and density (67%) were decreased. However, infaunal deposit-feeding polychaete Perinereis linea and epifaunal gastropods Batillaria cumingi and Lactiforis takii increased by Spartina. Ordination of macroinvertebrate assemblages separated the habitat with Spartina invasion from the adjacent uninvaded tidal flat and Suaeda japonica habitats. This study offers a significant insight into early invasion strategies of an aggressive plant invader, Spartina for management of coastal wetlands and its impacts on macrofaunal assemblages.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the member of Laboratory of Plant Ecology, including Jeong Hwan Bang, Saeromi Moon, Seung-Kyung Lee, Hyunyoung Yang, Shinyeong Park, Minjin Choi, Youngeun Kim for assistance with the vegetation survey. We also thank Tai Yang Lim and Yong Hwan Kim for their assistance in data acquisition using UAV. We would like to express a great appreciation to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on previous versions of this manuscript.
Funding
This work was supported by the Korea Environment Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI) through the Urban Ecological Health Promotion Technology Development Project, funded by the Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE) (no. 2020002770002). This work is financially supported by Korea Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport(MOLIT) as Innovative Talent Education Program for Smart City. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korea government. (MSIT) (2022R1A2C1003504). Wonhyeop Shin is grateful for financial support from Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation.
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Shin, W., Oh, M., Hong, JS. et al. Early invasion of common cordgrass (Spartina anglica) increases belowground biomass and decreases macrofaunal density and diversity in a tidal flat marsh. Biol Invasions 24, 3615–3629 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-022-02866-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-022-02866-8