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Impacts of Nitrogen and Sediment on Restored Wetland Plant Assemblages from an Agricultural Landscape

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Abstract

The ability to predict the impact of abiotic stressors on plant assemblage characteristics during habitat restoration is critical in the success of targeted restoration efforts. In an effort to determine wetland plant responses to common agricultural stressors, we seeded 75 mesocosms with soil collected from three restored wetlands in the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley. These mesocosms were subjected to four different combinations of nitrogen and sediment addition and monitored for two growing seasons. Resulting assemblages showed strong effects from site of origin with weaker effects of imposed treatments on assemblage composition. In contrast to species composition, summary metrics of assemblage quality (e.g., richness and diversity) were negatively affected by increased nitrogen and sediment levels, vs. controls. Over time, assemblage phylogenetic relatedness became more clustered, indicating the importance of abiotic filtering on wetland plant assemblages in agricultural landscapes. Our results indicate that agriculturally derived stressors can exert a filtering effect on plant assemblages, impact their perceived quality, and lessen the importance of soil site of origin in restored wetlands in agricultural landscapes.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Charles Bryson and John McDonald for assistance in identifying unknown plants. We also thank Dr. Gary Lawrence and the Mississippi State University (MSU) Department of Plant and Soil Science for the use of their autoclave and Dr. Gray Turnage and the GeoSystems Research Institute for the use of their facilities. Additionally the authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful critique of this work. This research was supported by the Mississippi Water Resource Research Institute (grant number G11AP20088) and the MSU Department of Biological Sciences.

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This research was supported by the Mississippi Water Resource Research Institute (grant number G11AP20088) award to GE and the Mississippi State University Department of Biological Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, PO Box GY, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, USA

    Cory M. Shoemaker, Lisa E. Wallace, Christopher P. Brooks, Evelyn W. DiOrio & Gary N. Ervin

  2. Department of Biology, Slippery Rock University, 1 Morrow Way, Slippery Rock, PA, 16057, USA

    Cory M. Shoemaker

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, 110 Mills Godwin Life Sciences Bldg., Norfolk, VA, 23529, USA

    Lisa E. Wallace

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CS and GE conceived the ideas and designed the experimental methodology

CS and ED collected the data

CS, LW, and CB analyzed the data

CS led the writing of the manuscript

All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication

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Correspondence to Cory M. Shoemaker.

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Shoemaker, C.M., Wallace, L.E., Brooks, C.P. et al. Impacts of Nitrogen and Sediment on Restored Wetland Plant Assemblages from an Agricultural Landscape. Wetlands 42, 85 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-022-01619-6

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