Abstract
The floating mat fens of the Tanana Flats in interior Alaska are productive wetlands near the urban center of Fairbanks. Airboat traffic has created a network of trails through the floating vegetation mats. We established protected areas along established trails, which allowed for measurement of plant community resistance to airboat traffic and resilience following cessation of traffic. The fen plant community was resistant to airboat traffic for two growing seasons, but productivity declined dramatically by the third year. Woody plants, grasses, and most forbs were eliminated in new airboat trails. Aboveground biomass and species diversity in plots protected from airboat traffic re-grew to undisturbed levels after four years. However, woody plants and many forbs did not re-grow in protected areas. Fen vegetation was therefore not resilient following cessation of traffic, as re-grown communities differed in both plant community composition and canopy structure. The loss of woody vegetation in particular has ramifications for possible alterations of ecosystem function. Airboats also reduced the amount of live belowground biomass and changed the vertical distribution of live roots.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature Cited
Ahlstrand, G. M. and D. H. Racine. 1993. Response of an Alaska, U.S.A., shrub-tussock community to selected allterrain vehicle use. Arctic and Alpine Research 25: 142–47.
Armstrong, J., R. E. Jones, and W. Armstrong. 2006. Rhizome phyllosphere oxygenation in Phragmites and other species in relation to redox potential, convective gas flow submergence and aeration pathways. New Phytologist 172: 719–31.
Beanlands, G. E., W. J. Erckmann, G. H. Orians, J. O’Riordan, D. Policansky, M. H. Sadar, and B. Sadler (eds.). 1986. Cumulative Environmental Effects: A Binational Perspective. Canadian Environmental Assessment Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and National Research Council, Washington DC, USA.
Bernard, J. M. and K. Fiala. 1986. Distribution and standing crop of living and dead roots in three wetland Carex species. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 113: 1–5.
Chapin, F. S. III, N. Fetcher, K. Kielland, K. R. Everett, and A. E. Linkins. 1988. Productivity and nutrient cycling of Alaskan tundra: enhancement by flowing soil water. Ecology 69: 693–702.
Chapin, F. S. III and G. R. Shaver. 1981. Changes in soil properties and vegetation following disturbance of Alaskan arctic tundra. Journal of Applied Ecology 18: 605–17.
Chapman, S., A. Buttler, A.-J. Francez, F. Laggoun-Défarge, H. Vasander, M. Schloter, J. Combe, P. Grosevernier, H. Harms, D. Epron, D. Gilbert, and E. Mitchell. 2003. Exploitation of northern peatlands and biodiversity maintenance: a conflict between economy and ecology. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1: 525–32.
Cole, D. N. 1995. Experimental trampling of vegetation. II. Predictors of resistance and resilience. Journal of Applied Ecology 32: 215–24.
Conover, W. J. 1980. Practical Nonparametric Statistics, second edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, USA.
Day, R. W. and G. P. Quinn. 1989. Comparisons of treatments after an analysis of variance in ecology. Ecological Monographs 59: 443–63.
Dickens, S. J. M., F. Gerhardt, and S. K. Collinge. 2005. Recreational portage trails as corridors facilitating non-native plant invasions of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (U.S.A.). Conservation Biology 19: 1653–57.
Floate, M. J. S. 1981. Effects of grazing by large herbivores on nitrogen cycling in agricultural ecosystems. p. 585–601. In F. E. Clark and T. Roswall (eds.) Terrestrial Nitrogen Cycles Ecological Bulletin 33, Stockholm, Sweden.
Forbes, B. C. 1992. Tundra disturbance studies I: Long-term effects of vehicles on species richness and biomass. Environmental Conservation 19: 48–58.
Forbes, B. C. 1993. Small-scale wetland restoration in the high arctic: a long term perspective. Restoration Ecology 1: 59–68.
Forbes, B. C. 1996. Plant communities of archeological sites, abandoned dwellings, and trampled tundra in the eastern Canadian Arctic: a multivariate analysis. Arctic 49: 141–54.
Forbes, B. C., J. J. Ebersole, and B. Strandberg. 2001. Anthropogenic disturbance and patch dynamics in circumpolar Arctic ecosystems. Conservation Biology 15: 954–69.
Forbes, B. C. and R. L. Jefferies. 1999. Revegetation of disturbed arctic sites: constraints and applications. Biological Conservation 88: 15–24.
Girard, M., C. Lavoie, and M. Theriault. 2002. The regeneration of a highly disturbed ecosystem: a mined peatland in southern Quebec. Ecosystems 5: 274–88.
Grace, J. B. 1993. The adaptive significance of clonal reproduction in angiosperms: an aquatic perspective. Aquatic Botany 44: 159–80.
Grime, J. P., J. G. Hodgson, and R. Hunt. 1988. Comparative Plant Ecology: a Functional Approach to Common British Species. Unwin Hyman, London, UK.
Haraguchi, A. 1996. Rhizome growth of Menyanthes trifoliata L. in a population on a floating peat mat in Mizorogaike Pond, central Japan. Aquatic Botany 53: 163–73.
Hirst, R. A., R. F. Pywell, R. H. Marrs, and P. D. Putwain. 2003. The resistance of a chalk grassland to disturbance. Journal of Applied Ecology 40: 368–79.
House, G. J., B. R. Stinner, D. A. Crossley, Jr., E. P. Odum, and G. W. Langdale. 1984. Nitrogen cycling in conventional and no-tillage agroecosystems in the Southern Piedmont. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 39: 194–200.
Hultén, E. 1968. Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories: A Manual of the Vascular Plants. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, USA.
Jeffries, M. O. and K. Morris. 2006. Instantaneous daytime conductive heat flow through snow on lake ice in Alaska. Hydrological Processes 20: 803–15.
Jorgenson, M. T. and T. E. Osterkamp. 2005. Response of boreal ecosystems to varying modes of permafrost degradation. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 35: 2100–11.
Jorgenson, M. T., C. H. Racine, J. C. Walters, and T. E. Osterkamp. 2001. Permafrost degradation and ecological changes associated with a warming climate in central Alaska. Climatic Change 48: 551–79.
Kevan, P. G., B. C. Forbes, S. M. Kevan, and V. Behan-Pelletier. 1995. Vehicle tracks on high Arctic tundra: their effects on the soil, vegetation, and soil arthropods. Journal of Applied Ecology 32: 655–67.
Komárková, V. 1993. Vegetation type hierarchies and landform disturbance in arctic Alaska and alpine Colorado with emphasis on snowpatches. Vegetatio 106: 155–81.
Lavoie, C., P. Grosvernier, M. Girard, and K. Marcoux. 2003. Spontaneous revegetation of mined peatlands: an useful restoration tool? Wetlands Ecology and Management 11: 97–107.
Lavoie, C. and L. Rochefort. 1996. The natural revegetation of a harvested peatland in southern Québec: a spatial and dendroecological analysis. Écoscience 3: 101–11.
Lavoie, C., A. Saint-Louis, and D. Lachance. 2005. Vegetation dynamics on an abandoned vacuum-mined peatland: 5 years of monitoring. Wetlands Ecology and Management 13: 621–33.
Littell, R. C., G. A. Milliken, W. W. Stroup, and R. D. Wolfinger. 1996. SAS System for Mixed Models. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA.
Manley, J. T., G. E. Schuman, J. D. Reeder, and R. H. Hart. 1995. Rangeland soil carbon and nitrogen responses to grazing. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 50: 294–98.
McNaughton, S. J., R. W. Ruess, and S. W. Seagle. 1988. Large mammals and process dynamics in African ecosystems. BioScience 38: 794–800.
Mitchell, R. J., M. H. D. Auld, M. G. LeDuc, and R. H. Marrs. 2000. Ecosystem stability and resilience: A review of their relevance for the conservation management of lowland heaths. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 3: 142–60.
Monz, C. A. 2002. The response of two arctic tundra plant communities to human trampling disturbance. Journal of Environmental Management 64: 207–17.
Pennings, S. C. and R. M. Callaway. 2000. The advantages of clonal integration under different ecological conditions: a community-wide test. Ecology 81: 709–16.
Racine, C. H. and J. C. Walters. 1994. Groundwater —discharge fens in the Tanana Lowlands, Interior Alaska, U.S.A. Arctic and Alpine Research 26: 418–26.
Racine, C. H., J. C. Walters, and M. T. Jorgenson. 1998. Airboat use and disturbance of floating mat fen wetlands in Interior Alaska, U.S.A. Arctic 51: 371–77.
Rose, M. and L. Hermanutz. 2004. Are boreal ecosystems susceptible to alien plant invasion? Evidence from protected areas. Oecologia 139: 467–77.
Ruess, R. W. 1987. The role of large herbivores in nutrient cycling of tropical savannas. p. 67–91. In B. H. Walker (ed.) Determinants of Tropical Savannas. IRL Press Ltd, Oxford, UK.
Sturm, M., J. P. McFadden, G. E. Liston, F. S. Chapin III, C. H. Racine, and J. Holmgren. 2001. Snow-shrub interactions in arctic tundra: a hypothesis with climatic implications. Journal of Climate 14: 336–44.
Sturm, M., J. Schimel, G. Michaelson, J. M. Welker, S. F. Oberbauer, G. E. Liston, J. Fahnestock, and V. E. Romanosky. 2005. Winter biological processes could help convert arctic tundra to shrubland. BioScience 55: 17–26.
Tande, G. and R. Lipkin. 2003. Wetland Sedges of Alaska. Alaska Natural Heritage Program, Environment and Natural Resources Institute, University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK, USA.
von Ende, C. N. 1993. Repeated-measures analysis: growth and other time-dependent measures. p. 113–37. In S. M. Scheiner and J. Gurevitch (eds.) Design and Analysis of Ecological Experiments. Chapman and Hall, New York, NY, USA.
Wallwork, J. A. 1976. The distribution and diversity of soil fauna. Academic Press, New York, NY, USA.
Zacheis, A. B., R. W. Ruess, and J. W. Hupp. 2002. Nitrogen dynamics in an Alaskan salt marsh following spring use by geese. Oecologia 130: 600–08.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zacheis, A., Doran, K. Resistance and resilience of floating mat fens in interior Alaska following Airboat disturbance. Wetlands 29, 236–247 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1672/08-84.1
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1672/08-84.1