Krause J R, Watson E, Wigand C, Maher N
Department of Biodiversity, Earth & Environmental Sciences and the Academy of Natural Sciences, Drexel University, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA, 19103, USA.
ORD-NHEERL, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Narragansett, RI, USA.
Wetlands (Wilmington). 2019 Dec 11;40:1-10. doi: 10.1007/s13157-019-01254-8.
Over the past four decades, Long Island, NY, USA, has lost coastal wetlands at a rate of 4% per decade due to submergence. In this study, we examined relationships between the rate of tidal salt marsh loss and environmental factors, including marsh elevation, tidal range, and wastewater exposure through analysis of stable isotope ratios of marsh soils and biota. Our goal was to identify factors that increase vulnerability of marshes to sea level rise, with a specific emphasis on the potential role of poor water quality in hastening marsh loss. Our results suggest that wastewater exposure may accelerate loss of intertidal marsh, but does not negatively impact high tidal marsh resilience to sea level rise. And while marsh elevation and tidal range were statistically significant predictors of marsh loss, they similarly displayed opposite relationships among marsh zones. This study suggests that different functional zones of coastal salt marshes may not respond similarly to global change factors, and that elevation may be an important factor mediating eutrophication effects to coastal salt marshes.
在过去的四十年里，美国纽约州长岛因海平面上升，沿海湿地正以每十年4%的速度流失。在本研究中，我们通过分析沼泽土壤和生物群的稳定同位素比率，研究了潮汐盐沼流失速率与环境因素之间的关系，这些环境因素包括沼泽海拔、潮差和废水暴露情况。我们的目标是确定增加沼泽对海平面上升脆弱性的因素，特别强调水质差在加速沼泽流失中可能发挥的作用。我们的结果表明，废水暴露可能会加速潮间带沼泽的流失，但不会对高潮带沼泽应对海平面上升的恢复力产生负面影响。虽然沼泽海拔和潮差在统计学上是沼泽流失的显著预测因子，但它们在不同沼泽区域也呈现出相反的关系。本研究表明，沿海盐沼的不同功能区对全球变化因素的反应可能不尽相同，海拔可能是调节富营养化对沿海盐沼影响的一个重要因素。
