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Effects of restoration strategies on vegetation establishment in retired cranberry bogs

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Abstract

The wetlands of the New Jersey Pine Barrens (USA) have historically been utilized for large-scale cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) farming. In 2003, 3800 hectares of retired cranberry farm became the focus of restoration efforts by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation with the goal of returning much of its 2000 hectares of wetlands to the previous condition as Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thoides) swamp. Two different agricultural strategies had previously been employed throughout the farm: traditional- minimal soil and hydrological modification, and modernized- intensive management with soil replacement and major hydrological modification. During restoration, three different strategies were employed: hydrological restoration only, hydrological restoration with microtopographic modification, and hydrological restoration with microtopographic modification and planting of C. thyoides. The purpose of our study was to examine the effects of these strategies on vegetation establishment a decade after restoration was initiated. Replicate nested quadrats were established at each study site, and vegetation was surveyed in both June and August of 2017. All restoration strategies produced robust plant assemblages with similar diversity and quality to each other and to the reference sites. However, the assemblages were set apart by their unique indicator species. Our results also suggest that planting C. thyoides seedlings may give the species selective advantage in a competitive successional setting. According to NMDS ordination, plant assemblages at restored sites were significantly different from reference sites; only continued monitoring will allow us to determine where their successional paths will lead. This study has important implications for future restoration projects in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and similar ecosystems, especially because the results suggest that as long as hydrological restoration occurs, this can promote the establishment of robust, diverse, and relatively high-quality plant assemblages.

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Data availability

Data is available via Dryad Digital Repository at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4f4qrfjbx.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Kean University Students Partnering with Faculty Program and the National Science Foundation- Garden State Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, which both funded this study. We would also like to thank the students who conducted the field work for this project: Kristin Conlan, Al Mujeeb Danmole, Bruce Galdos, Marionela Gavriliuc, and Bethania Rocha. We are grateful to Andy Baldwin and Tatiana Lobato de Magalhaes for their advice regarding ecology statistical tools, and are especially indebted to Scott Wentzell who assisted us in utilizing these statistical tools using R open-source software. And we would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers that contributed substantially to the improvement of this paper and the effective communication of our findings to a global audience.

Funding

The research was supported by a Students Partnering with Faculty Award from Kean University and the National Science Foundation-Garden State Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. Thomas Aquinas College, 125 Route 340, Sparkill, NY, 10976, USA

    Bianca M. Wentzell

  2. New Jersey Conservation Foundation, 170 Longview Road, Far Hills, NJ, 07931, USA

    Emile D. DeVito

  3. School of Environmental and Sustainability Sciences, Kean University, 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ, 07083, USA

    Daniela J. Shebitz

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  1. Bianca M. Wentzell
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  2. Emile D. DeVito
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  3. Daniela J. Shebitz
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Contributions

Restoration procedures: EDV; study design: BW and DS; data collection: BW and DS; data analysis: BW; writing-original draft: BW, DS; writing- review & editing: BW, DS, and EDV; supervision- DS.

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Correspondence to Daniela J. Shebitz.

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Communicated by Karen Harper.

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Wentzell, B.M., DeVito, E.D. & Shebitz, D.J. Effects of restoration strategies on vegetation establishment in retired cranberry bogs. Plant Ecol 222, 897–913 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-021-01150-4

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