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Altered Plant-community Composition and Edaphic Features Associated with Plowing in Southern Wisconsin Fens

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Abstract

The potential for land-use legacies to alter current wetland macrophyte communities and edaphic conditions are underexplored. Here we present results of a study describing associations among these factors in southern Wisconsin fens. Plant-community composition, hydrology, and nutrient availability data were recorded from 1) fens that had been plowed, 2) fens that have never been plowed, and 3) fens with plowed and never-plowed areas. Plowed fens had: 1) lower total species richness, 2) higher invasive species richness, 2) lower native graminoid richness, 3) lower shrub richness, 4) lower root-zone volumetric water content, and 5) higher available N and P then never-plowed fens. Most of these same relationships held when comparing plowed and never-plowed areas of the same fen. Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling revealed that the most important community gradient separates graminoid- and fen-specialist-rich communities from those dominated by invasive species. This gradient also separated plowed from never plowed plots. Accordingly, we believe that a history of plowing has fundamentally altered biotic and, potentially, abiotic conditions, with real consequences for wetland management and restoration.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. C. Dewitt and several anonymous informants for providing historical information in this study. We thank Wings over Wisconsin, The Nature Conservancy, and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for site access and logistical support. Funding was provided to D. B. by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison, 25V Agricultural Hall, 1450 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Tara Davenport

  2. Department of Landscape Architecture and Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison, 42B Agricultural Hall, 1450 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    David Bart

  3. Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison, 122 Science Hall, 550N Park Street, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Quentin Carpenter

Authors
  1. Tara Davenport
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  2. David Bart
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  3. Quentin Carpenter
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Correspondence to David Bart.

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Davenport, T., Bart, D. & Carpenter, Q. Altered Plant-community Composition and Edaphic Features Associated with Plowing in Southern Wisconsin Fens. Wetlands 34, 449–457 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-013-0511-0

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