Ecological Community Changes and Ecosystem Functioning During Structured Wetland Development
type: CreativeWork
description: Saltmarshes provide important ecosystem services, including protection from tidal inundation, grazing for livestock, resources for birds and breeding grounds for fish. After a long history of saltmarsh reclamation there is now emphasis on restoration of existing or destroyed saltmarshes to provide dynamic coastal defences providing ecosystem services. The engineering technique of Managed Realignment (MR) is a popular method of restoration where existing coastal defences are deliberately breached. The process of change associated with MR, including the influences of starting state, construction, and saltmarsh community structure changes require further study to provide guidelines for optimal restoration practices. Here, the ecological changes during the early stages of saltmarsh restoration via MR at Steart Marshes in Somerset, UK are studied. Common Standards Methods were used to monitor vegetation and invertebrate community composition changes from pre-breaching (September 2014) through 4 years of tidal regime post-breaching. Soil and sediment characteristics, and soil accretion were studied at the same time. All data were collected from permanent sample plots. Changes were compared with a managed brackish site (Otterhampton Marsh) with a similar starting state, and a mature SSSI saltmarsh in Bridgwater Bay was treated as a ‘target state’. Soil characteristics included soil moisture, pH, electrical conductivity, soil organic carbon, nitrate-nitrogen, ammonium-nitrogen and phosphate-phosphorus. Changes of these were compared to the target state and the managed brackish site. The National Vegetation Classification (NVC) scheme was partly used to assess vegetation communities, and multivariate methods including cluster analysis and ordination were used to assess changes of flora, invertebrates, and soil characteristics. Saltmarsh vegetation colonised a former pasture location more rapidly than a former arable location and was slowest in the managed brackish location. …
abstract: Saltmarshes provide important ecosystem services, including protection from tidal inundation, grazing for livestock, resources for birds and breeding grounds for fish. After a long history of saltmarsh reclamation there is now emphasis on restoration of existing or destroyed saltmarshes to provide dynamic coastal defences providing ecosystem services. The engineering technique of Managed Realignment (MR) is a popular method of restoration where existing coastal defences are deliberately breached. The process of change associated with MR, including the influences of starting state, construction, and saltmarsh community structure changes require further study to provide guidelines for optimal restoration practices. Here, the ecological changes during the early stages of saltmarsh restoration via MR at Steart Marshes in Somerset, UK are studied. Common Standards Methods were used to monitor vegetation and invertebrate community composition changes from pre-breaching (September 2014) through 4 years of tidal regime post-breaching. Soil and sediment characteristics, and soil accretion were studied at the same time. All data were collected from permanent sample plots. Changes were compared with a managed brackish site (Otterhampton Marsh) with a similar starting state, and a mature SSSI saltmarsh in Bridgwater Bay was treated as a ‘target state’. Soil characteristics included soil moisture, pH, electrical conductivity, soil organic carbon, nitrate-nitrogen, ammonium-nitrogen and phosphate-phosphorus. Changes of these were compared to the target state and the managed brackish site. The National Vegetation Classification (NVC) scheme was partly used to assess vegetation communities, and multivariate methods including cluster analysis and ordination were used to assess changes of flora, invertebrates, and soil characteristics. Saltmarsh vegetation colonised a former pasture location more rapidly than a former arable location and was slowest in the managed brackish location. …
author: George, Adam James
language: en
date published: 2020
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:43:45Z
provider: Oxford Brookes University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Oxford Brookes University

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.24384/pjqd-8h66