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Community Structure and Abiotic Determinants of Salt Marsh Plant Zonation Vary Across Topographic Gradients

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Abstract

We investigated compositions of plant communities and their abiotic determinants in the Yellow River estuary, China. Along a topographic gradient, we quantified plant compositions and abiotic factors in different vegetation zones, and examined the relationships between plant communities and abiotic factors using canonical correspondence analysis and the effects of vegetation shading using a removal experiment. The relationships between plant communities and abiotic factors differed between high elevations and low elevations. Salinity and flooding oppositely related with distributions of plant communities at low elevations, but they appeared to operate synergically at high elevations. The effects of vegetation shading were found to vary across the topographic gradient, indicating spatial variations in potential positive interactions among plants. These results suggest that spatial variations in determinants of community structure should be addressed in future studies in estuarine and coastal systems, as well as in other natural habitats.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Xianxian Liu, Yanyan Hua, Yanzi Cai, and Jiafeng Deng for invaluable field and/or laboratory assistance, Chenghuan Wang, Xiao Sun, two anonymous reviewers for critical comments, and Yueliang Liu and Juanzhang Lv for access to the study site. This study was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (U0833002), National Key Basic Research Program of China (2006CB403303), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2009SD-24).

Conflicts of Interest Notification

We state that this manuscript have been read and approved by all authors listed on the title page, and that all authors have made substantial contributions to the design, execution, and reporting of this study. All financial interests held by the authors in any reported findings and all sources of financial support for the work have been described in the acknowledgments of the paper. We do not have a financial relationship with the organization that sponsored the research and no potential conflicts of interest exist to our knowledge and understanding. We maintain full control of all primary data, and we agree to allow the journal to review our data if requested.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Bao-Shan CUI & Qiang HE

  2. Department of Plant Science, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Qiang HE & Yuan AN

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  1. Bao-Shan CUI
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Correspondence to Bao-Shan CUI or Yuan AN.

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CUI, BS., HE, Q. & AN, Y. Community Structure and Abiotic Determinants of Salt Marsh Plant Zonation Vary Across Topographic Gradients. Estuaries and Coasts 34, 459–469 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-010-9364-4

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