Abstract

Suaeda salsa community is a vegetation type in saline-alkali areas. Weed invasion and colonization in S. salsa communities lead to fragmentationsof S. salsa communities. The colonization of invaded weeds in S. salsa communities is related to community succession of saline-alkali zones. The fragmented S. salsa community may be restored if the mechanism of invaded weed colonization in S. salsa communities is clearly elucidated. Thus, we studied the ecological stoichiometric characteristics of soils and plants in a salt marsh to explain the high colonization possibility of invaded weeds in S. salsa communities. In October 2014, soils and plants were collected from Dongfeng Salt Marsh, Jiaozhou Bay, Shandong Province, China. The ratio of Ex-N/Ex-P in soil was less than 13, which suggests a relative nitrogen limitation for the primary production in the zone. The minimum phosphorus content in plants was higher than 1 mg g-1, whereas the maximum nitrogen content in plants was less than 13 mg g-1. These results imply that phosphorus was abundant, whereas nitrogen was deficient in the area. The plants in the salt marsh may be limited by nitrogen. Given the relatively lower nitrogen contents in Cyperus glomeratus, Echinochloa crusgalli, and Aster subulatus than that in S. salsa, these three species exhibited higher competitiveness than S. salsa did when nitrogen was limited in primary production. These weed species may colonize highly in S. salsa communities. Moreover, nitrogen fertilization might be effective to maintain S. salsa community in Dongfeng Salt Marsh, whereas its effects on controlling weeds colonization in S. salsa communities need more studies to verify.

Highlights

  • Suaeda salsa belongs to the family Chenopodiaceae, and this species can tolerate adverse environmental conditions, which enable them to survive in soils with high salinity or alkalinity [1]

  • The invaded S. salsa communities become fragmented.A. subulatus, E. crusgalli, P. aviculare and S. viridas are on the list of alien invasive species in China, and the invasive grade of A. subulatus is 1 and the invasive grades of other weeds are 7, which means that A. subulatus belongs to malignant invasive species and others become Chinese domestic species [20]

  • No significant difference was observed in the total nitrogen (TN) content in soils among these sampling sites, and the mean TN content in soil of the salt marsh was 20.59 ± 7.00 mg g-1 (Fig 2)

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Summary

Introduction

Suaeda salsa belongs to the family Chenopodiaceae, and this species can tolerate adverse environmental conditions, which enable them to survive in soils with high salinity or alkalinity [1]. S. salsa community is a typical dominant vegetation in saline-alkali areas (e.g., occurrences of large S. salsa communities in the Yellow River Delta and coastal areas of Jiangsu Province, China) [2,3,4]. Numerous S. salsa communities have been developed as tourism resources in PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0170401. High Colonization Possibility of Weeds in Suaeda salsa Community. 2013M541905), the Science & Technology Project of Shenzhen (No JCYJ2014041811549187). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

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