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Salinity and inundation effects on productivity of brackish tidal marsh plants in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary

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Abstract

Plant productivity is central to numerous ecosystem functions in tidal wetlands. We examined how productivity of brackish marsh plants in northern California responded to abiotic stress gradients of inundation and salinity using two experimental approaches. In a greenhouse study with varying salinity, shoot production and biomass of Juncus balticus, Schoenoplectus acutus and S. americanus all declined monotonically with higher salinity, with evidence of differences in sensitivity among species by their varied functional responses. Salinity also negatively affected fecundity for the one species (S. americanus) that produced enough inflorescences during the experiment for analysis. In a field manipulation of inundation and initial pore water salinity, total end-of-season biomass and other metrics of growth in the high marsh species, J. balticus, had unimodal relationships with inundation. Root production tended to be greater strongly impacted by greater inundation than shoot production. The salinity treatment quickly dissipated for treatments that were flooded more frequently but persisted at a higher marsh elevation where it suppressed plant growth. These results suggest that both increased flooding and salinity associated with climate change and sea-level rise may negatively impact productivity of brackish marsh species, but with variable effects by species and stressor.

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The data generated in this study will be made available through the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (knb.ecoinformatics.org).

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (EESLR cooperative agreement NA15NOS4780171) and the Priority Ecosystems Science program of the U.S. Geological Survey. We thank Veronica Corbett, Karen Backe, Mike Vasey, Ari Goodman, Mason Hill, Dave Nelson, Charlie Nelson, Sonya Kaufman, and Kevin Buffington for project assistance. We also thank two anonymous reviewers and Dylan Chapple for comments that helped improve the paper. Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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  1. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, 104 Nash Hall, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Christopher N. Janousek, Bruce D. Dugger & Brandon M. Drucker

  2. U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Karen M. Thorne

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Janousek, C.N., Dugger, B.D., Drucker, B.M. et al. Salinity and inundation effects on productivity of brackish tidal marsh plants in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. Hydrobiologia 847, 4311–4323 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-020-04419-3

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