Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Holocene Vegetation Dynamics of an Upper St. Lawrence River Wetland: Paleoecological Evidence for a Recent Increase in Cattail (Typha)

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Wetlands Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Cattails (Typha latifolia L., Typha angustifolia L., and Typha x glauca Godr.) are the predominant emergent vegetation of upper St. Lawrence River coastal wetlands. We sought to describe Holocene vegetation in a St. Lawrence River wetland to assess patterns of succession and examine the timing and potential causes of a historic cattail invasion. Paleoecological analysis indicated presence of four distinct wetland vegetation stages, including a shallow water marsh (8240 YBP to 5160 YBP), a variable-depth aquatic plant community with adjacent alder (5160 YBP to 1610 YBP), a shallow sedge community (1610 YBP to 100 YBP), and a robust emergent marsh (100 YBP to present). The record of pollen tetrads demonstrated cattail presence throughout the history of the marsh, but a rapid increase in relative abundance of Typha cf. angustifolia/Sparganium monads indicated major expansion of robust emergent plants beginning near the peak of agricultural activity (ca. 1880 AD) and reaching modern levels around 1940 AD. Increase in the abundance of robust emergents in this wetland occurred decades before regulation of St. Lawrence River water levels and were contemporary with increased sedimentation and changes associated with the early agricultural period.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson TW, Lewis CFM (1985) Postglacial water-level history on the Lake Ontario Basin. In: Karrow PF, Calkin PE (eds) Quaternary evolution of the great lakes. Geological Association of Canada Special Paper, 30, St. John’s, Newfoundland, pp 231–253

  • Appleby PG (2001) Chronostratigraphic techniques in recent sediments. In: Smol JP, Birks HJB, Last WM (eds) Tracking environmental change using lake sediments, volume 3: terrestrial, algal, and siliceous indicators. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, pp 171–203

    Google Scholar 

  • Appleby PG, Oldfield F (1978) The calculation of lead-210 dates assuming a constant rate of supply of unsupported lead-210 to the sediment. Catena 5:1–8

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beland M (2003) Holocene vegetation dynamics of an upper St. Lawrence River coastal wetland and surrounding uplands: effects of climate change and anthropogenic disturbance. M.S. Thesis, State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry

  • Bennett KD, Willis KJ (2002) Pollen. In: Smol JP, Birks HJB, Last WM (eds) Tracking environmental change using lake sediments, volume 3: terrestrial, algal, and siliceous indicators. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, pp 5–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Berglund BE (1986) Handbook of holocene palaeoecology and palaeohydrology. Wiley, Chinchester

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernard JM, Solsky BA (1977) Nutrient cycling in a Carex lacustris wetland. Canadian Journal of Botany 55:630–638

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bickelhaupt DH, White EH (1982) Laboratory manual for soil and plant tissue analysis. State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse

    Google Scholar 

  • Bond MC (1954) Changes in New York State Agriculture, 1850–1950, as indicated by state and federal censuses. Department of Agricultural Economics, Cornell University, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Byrd K, Kelly M (2006) Salt marsh vegetation response to edaphic and topographical changes from upland sedimentation in a Pacific estuary. Wetlands 26:813–829

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen X, Driscoll CT (2009) Watershed land use controls on chemical inputs to Lake Ontario embayments. Journal of Environmental Quality 38:2084–2095

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chow-Fraser P, Lougheed V, Le Thiec V, Crosbie B, Simser L, Lord J (1998) Long-term response of the biotic community to fluctuating water levels and changes in water quality in Cootes Paradise Marsh, a degraded coastal wetland of Lake Ontario. Wetlands Ecology and Management 6:19–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark JS, Patterson WA (1985) The development of a tidal marsh: upland and oceanic influences. Ecological Monographs 55:189–217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark JS, Royall PD, Chumbley C (1996) The role of fire during climate change in an eastern deciduous forest at Devil’s Bathtub, New York. Ecology 77:2148–2166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper JE, Mead JV, Farrell JM, Werner RG (2008) Coexistence of pike (Esox lucius) and muskellunge (E. masquinongy) during early life and the implications of habitat change. Hydrobiologia 601:41–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enríquez S, Duarte CM, Sand-Jensen K (1993) Patterns in decomposition rates among photosynthetic organisms: the importance of detritus C:N:P content. Oecologia 94:457–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ewing K (1996) Tolerance of four wetland plant species to flooding and sediment deposition. Environmental and Experimental Botany 36:131–146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farrell JM, Murry BA, Leopold DJ, Halpern A, Rippke M, Godwin KS, Hafner SD (2010) Water-level regulation and coastal wetland vegetation in the upper St. Lawrence River: inferences from historical aerial imagery, seed banks, and Typha dynamics. Hydrobiologia 647:127–144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finkelstein SA (2003) Identifying pollen grains of Typha latifolia, Typha angustifolia, and Typha × glauca. Canadian Journal of Botany 81:985–990

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geis JW, Kee JL (1977) Coastal wetlands along Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River in Jefferson County, New York. State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse

    Google Scholar 

  • Gleason RA, Euliss NH Jr, Hubbard DE, Duffy WG (2003) Effects of sediment load on emergence of aquatic invertebrates and plants from wetland soil egg and seed banks. Wetlands 23:26–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg ED (1963) Geochronology with 210Pb. Radioactive dating. International Atomic Energy Agency Symposium Proceedings, Vienna, pp 121–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottgens JF, Swartz BP, Kroll RW, Eboch M (1998) Long-term GIS-based records of habitat changes in a Lake Erie coastal marsh. Wetlands Ecology and Management 6:5–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grace JB, Harrison JS (1986) The biology of Canadian weeds. 73. Typha latifolia L., Typha angustifolia L., and Typha x glauca Godr. Canadian Journal of Plant Science 66:361–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grimm EC (1987) CONISS: A FORTRAN 77 program for stratigraphically constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares. Computers and Geosciences 13:13–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grimm EC (2004) Tilia (Version 2.0.b.4) and TGView (Version 2.0.2). Illinois State Museum, Springfield

    Google Scholar 

  • Hough FB (1854) A history of Jefferson County. Sterling and Riddell, Watertown

    Google Scholar 

  • Janssen CR (1967) Stevens pond: a postglacial pollen diagram from a small Typha swamp in northwestern Minnesota, interpreted from pollen indicator and surface samples. Ecological Monographs 37:145–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jansson R, Nilsson C, Dynesius M, Andersson E (2000) Effects of river regulation on river-margin vegetation: a comparison of eight boreal rivers. Ecological Applications 10:203–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jurik TW, Wang S, van der Valk AG (1994) Effects of sediment load on seedling emergence from wetland seed banks. Wetlands 14:159–165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapp RO (1969) How to know pollen and spores. WMC Brown Company, Dubuque

    Google Scholar 

  • Keddy PA (1983) Shoreline vegetation in Axe Lake, Ontario: effects of exposure on zonation patterns. Ecology 64:331–344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keddy PA (2000) Wetland ecology principles and conservation. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Keddy PA, Reznicek AA (1986) Great Lakes vegetation dynamics: the role of fluctuating water levels and buried seeds. Journal of Great Lakes Research 12:25–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kercher SM, Zedler JB (2004) Multiple disturbances accelerate invasion of reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) in a mesocosm study. Oecologia 138:455–464

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koohzare A, Vaníček P, Santos M (2008) Pattern of recent vertical crustal movements in Canada. Journal of Geodynamics 45:133–145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAndrews JH, Berti AA, Noris G (1973) Key to the quaternary pollen and spores of the great lakes region. Toronto Royal Museum Miscellaneous Publications, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • McCaffrey RJ, Thomson J (1980) A record of the accumulation of sediments and heavy metals in a Connecticut salt marsh. In: Saltzman B (ed) Estuarine physics and chemistry: studies in long island. Academic, New York, pp 165–236

    Google Scholar 

  • McDowell L (1989) Soil survey of Jefferson County. U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation Service and Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyers PA, Lallier-Vergès E (1999) Lacustrine sedimentary organic matter records of Late Quaternary paleoclimates. Journal of Paleolimnology 21:345–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore PD, Collinson ME, Webb JA (1994) Pollen analysis. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Ltd, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Neely RK, Davis CB (1985) Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization of Sparganium eurycarpum Engelm. and Typha glauca Godr. Stands. I. Emergent plant production. Aquatic Botany 22:347–361

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orson RA, Howes BL (1992) Salt marsh development studies at Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts: influence of geomorphology on long-term plant community structure. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 27:453–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patch SP, Busch WDN (1984) The St. Lawrence River—past and present. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Cortland

    Google Scholar 

  • Reeder BC (1989) Quaternary history of Old Woman Creek wetland. In: Mitsch WJ (ed) Wetlands of Ohio’s Coastal Lake Erie: a hierarchy of systems. Ohio State University Press, Columbus, pp 97–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Rice D, Rooth J, Stevenson JC (2000) Colonization and expansion of Phragmites australis in upper Chesapeake Bay tidal marshes. Wetlands 20:280–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schelske CL, Hodell DA (1995) Using carbon isotopes of bulk sedimentary organic matter to reconstruct the history of nutrient loading and eutrophication in Lake Erie. Limnology and Oceanography 40:918–929

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shay JM, de Geus PMJ, Kapinga MRM (1999) Changes in shoreline vegetation over a 50-year period in the Delta Marsh, Manitoba in response to water levels. Wetlands 19:413–425

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singer DK, Jackson ST, Madsen BJ, Wilcox DA (1996) Differentiating climatic and successional influences on long-term development of a marsh. Ecology 77:1765–1778

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stuiver M, Reimer PJ, Bard E, Beck JW, Burr GS, Hughen KA, Kromer B, McCormac FG, Plicht J, Spurk M (1998) INTCL 98 radiocarbon age calibration, 24, 000–0 cal BP. Radiocarbon 40:1041–1083

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stuiver M, Reimer PJ, Reimer RW (2005) CALIB 5.0. 14CHRONO Centre, Queens University, Belfast. http://intcal.qub.ac.uk/calib. Accessed 5 Feb 2005

  • Talbot MR, Laerdal T (2000) The late Pleistocene-Holocene paleolimnology of Lake Victoria, East Africa, based upon elemental and isotopic analyses of sedimentary organic matter. Journal of Paleolimnology 23:141–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas E, Varecamp JC (1991) Paleo-environmental analyses of marsh sequences (Clinton, Connecticut): evidence for punctuated rise in relative sealevel during the latest Holocene. Journal of Coastal Research 11:125–158

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuchman NC, Larkin DJ, Geddes P, Wildova R, Jankowski K, Goldberg DE (2009) Patterns of environmental change associated with Typha x glauca invasion in a Great Lakes coastal wetland. Wetlands 29:964–975

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turetsky MR, Manning SW, Wieder RK (2004) Dating recent peat deposits. Wetlands 24:324–356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tushingham AM (1992) Postglacial uplift predictions and historical water levels of the Great Lakes. Journal of Great Lakes Research 18:440–455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (1997) Census of agriculture summary for the State of New York. USDA, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang S, Jurik TW, van der Valk AG (1994) Effects of sediment load on various stages in the life and death of cattail (Typha x glauca). Wetlands 14:166–173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warwick WF (1980) Paleolimnology of the Bay of Quinte, Lake Ontario: 2800 years of cultural influence. Canadian Bulletin of Fisheries and Aquatic Science 206:1–118

    Google Scholar 

  • Webb RS, Webb TI (1988) Rates of sediment accumulation in pollen cores from small lakes and mires of Eastern North America. Quaternary Research 30:284–297

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werner KJ, Zedler JB (2002) How sedge meadow soils, microtopography, and vegetation respond to sedimentation. Wetlands 22:451–466

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox DA (1995) Wetland and aquatic macrophytes as indicators of anthropogenic hydrologic disturbance. Natural Areas Journal 15:240–248

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox DA, Meeker JE (1991) Disturbance effects on aquatic vegetation in regulated and unregulated lakes in northern Minnesota. Canadian Journal of Botany 69:1542–1551

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox DA, Xie Y (2007) Predicting wetland plant responses to proposed water-level-regulation plans for Lake Ontario: GIS-based modeling. Journal of Great Lakes Research 33:751–773

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox DA, Apfelbaum SI, Hiebert RD (1984) Cattail invasion of sedge meadows following hydrologic disturbance in the Cowles Bog wetland complex, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Wetlands 4:115–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox DA, Kowalski KP, Hoare HL, Carlson ML, Morgan HN (2008) Cattail invasion of sedge/grass meadows in Lake Ontario: photointerpretation analysis of sixteen wetlands over five decades. Journal of Great Lakes Research 34:301–323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woo I, Zedler JB (2002) Can nutrients alone shift a sedge meadow towards dominance by the invasive Typha x glauca? Wetlands 22:509–521

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This project was in part funded by the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Program (#FA-5-R) administered by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the Great Lakes Protection Fund WR 537. We also extend our gratitude to Val Klump of the Great Lakes WATER Institute at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee for completing 210Pb dating and the University of Arizona, Atomic Mass Spectometry Laboratory for completing the carbon dating. We thank Henry Mullins of Syracuse University Geology for his assistance with coring and valuable advice, Mark Teece of the SUNY-ESF Chemistry for support of C:N analyses and Donald Leopold (SUNY-ESF Environmental and Forest Biology) for his assistance and support. This research is a contribution of the Thousand Island Biological Station.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Molly Beland Rippke

    Present address: Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Lansing, MI, 48909-7773, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA

    Molly Beland Rippke, Matthew T. Distler & John M. Farrell

Authors
  1. Molly Beland Rippke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Matthew T. Distler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. John M. Farrell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John M. Farrell.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rippke, M.B., Distler, M.T. & Farrell, J.M. Holocene Vegetation Dynamics of an Upper St. Lawrence River Wetland: Paleoecological Evidence for a Recent Increase in Cattail (Typha). Wetlands 30, 805–816 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-010-0068-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-010-0068-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation