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A Comprehensive Study of Silica Pools and Fluxes in Wadden Sea Salt Marshes

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Abstract

As an essential nutrient for diatoms, silica plays a key role in the estuarine and coastal food web. High concentrations of dissolved silica (DSi) were found in the seepage water of tidal freshwater marshes, which were therefore assumed to contribute to the silica supply to estuarine waters in times of silica limitation. A comprehensive budget calculation for European salt marshes is presented in this study. Earlier, salt marshes were considered to have even higher silica recycling rates than tidal freshwater marshes. Between 2009 and 2011, concentrations, pools and fluxes of silica in two salt marshes at the German Wadden Sea coast were determined (in soil, pore water, aboveground vegetation, freshly deposited sediments and seepage water). Subsequently, a budget was calculated. Special emphasis was placed on the influence of grazing management on silica cycling. Our results show that the two salt marshes were sinks for silica. The average import of biogenic silica (BSi) with freshly deposited sediments (1,334 kmol km−2 year−1) largely exceeded the DSi and BSi exports with seepage water (80 kmol km−2 year−1). Grazing management can affect silica cycling of salt marshes by influencing hydrology and vegetation structure. Abandoned sites had larger DSi export rates than grazed sites. One third of all BSi imports occurred in only one major flooding, underlining the relevance of rare events in the silica budget of tidal marshes. This aspect has been widely neglected in earlier studies, what might have led to an underestimation of silica import rates to tidal marshes hitherto.

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Acknowledgments

Frauke Müller and Antonia Wanner were funded by the Bauer-Hollman Foundation in the frame work of the research project BASSIA (Biodiversity, management and ecosystem functions of salt marshes in the Wadden Sea National Park of Schleswig-Holstein). Frauke Müller further thanks the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and ESTRADE (Estuary and Wetland Research Graduate School Hamburg as member of LExI (State Excellence Initiative) funded by the Hamburg Science and Research Foundation) for personal PhD funding and organizational support. Eric Struyf was funded by FWO (Research Foundation Flanders). Jens Hartmann was supported by the Cluster of Excellence ‘CliSAP’ (EXC177), University of Hamburg, funded through the German Science Foundation (DFG). We would like to thank our project partner Wadden Sea National Park of Schleswig-Holstein for cooperation, supply of data and research permissions. Sincere thanks are further given to all people who assisted in the field and in the lab and to Andrea Bauer, who analysed the BSi content of salt marsh plant species. Tom van der Spiet and Anne Cools (University of Antwerp) kindly analysed the DSi and BSi content of the water samples. Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this manuscript.

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  1. Applied Plant Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Hamburg, Ohnhorststr. 18, 22609, Hamburg, Germany

    F. Müller, A. Wanner & K. Jensen

  2. Ecosystem Management Research Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1C, Wilrijk, 2610, Antwerp, Belgium

    E. Struyf

  3. Chemistry of Natural Aqueous Solutions, Department of Geology, University of Hamburg, Bundesstr. 55, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    J. Hartmann

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  1. F. Müller
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Appendix

Appendix

Table 3 Mean pore water DSi concentration, conductivity and pH and soil BSi concentrations of an ungrazed Belgian salt marsh (‘Het Zwin’ near Knokke-Heist, 51°22′N, 3°22′E), sampled in a supplemental sampling campaign on 9 August 2011. Sampling locations A and B were located next to two different creeks in a distance of about 400 m to each other. Sampling and analysis were carried out as described in this study
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Müller, F., Struyf, E., Hartmann, J. et al. A Comprehensive Study of Silica Pools and Fluxes in Wadden Sea Salt Marshes. Estuaries and Coasts 36, 1150–1164 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-013-9621-4

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