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Nutrients in Saltmarsh Soils Are Weakly Related to those in Adjacent Coastal Waters

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Abstract

Saltmarshes provide a broad range of high-value ecosystem services and can be sensitive to eutrophication, but elucidating such impacts at broad spatial scales demands a better understanding of the underlying nutrient linkages between saltmarsh soil and tidal waters. We used existing water quality data and field surveys of 15 saltmarshes across a broad trophic gradient of coastal waters, but similar biogeographic setting (in Ireland) to investigate if phosphorus and nitrogen pools in saltmarsh soils are related to those in tidal water across saltmarshes. We also investigated if the strength of such relationships is inversely related to ground elevation, which approximates the degree of tidal inundation. Plant-available phosphorus and nitrogen pools in soil were related to water nutrients, albeit only weakly. We did not find any support for the moderating influence of elevation, indicating that it may be obscured by internal cycling and external sources. We also found evidence for effect of birds on the saltmarsh nutrient pool. Saltmarsh soils are unlikely to serve as general sentinels of nutrient conditions in their corresponding water bodies and may need separate assessment criteria and management tools, which in turn require disentangling localised and whole-saltmarsh sources of variation in nutrient concentrations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Sorcha Ní Longphuirt (EPA) for assistance in retrieving water quality data, and Yana Bersunukayeva and Alanna Kirwan for laboratory help. Fionnuala O’Neill and Emmi Virkki assisted with fieldwork. The authors also thank anonymous reviewers whose comments improved this manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of the SAMFHIRES project (Saltmarsh Function and Human Impacts in Relation to Ecological Status) (2015-W-MS-19).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for the Environment and Botany Department, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, College Green, Dublin, Ireland

    Marcin R. Penk & Stephen Waldren

  2. Botanical, Environmental and Conservation Consultants, 43 Herbert Lane, Dublin, Ireland

    Marcin R. Penk & Philip M. Perrin

  3. Environmental Protection Agency, John Moore Road, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Ireland

    Robert Wilkes

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  1. Marcin R. Penk
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Correspondence to Marcin R. Penk.

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Communicated by Nancy L. Jackson

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Penk, M.R., Wilkes, R., Perrin, P.M. et al. Nutrients in Saltmarsh Soils Are Weakly Related to those in Adjacent Coastal Waters. Estuaries and Coasts 42, 675–687 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-018-00486-x

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