Abstract
Photo 1: Plant community in a long-term study on the effects of fertilization, mowing, and hydrology in a coastal plain wetland (North Carolina, USA). Wetland specialist species such as Rhexia virginica, Calamagrostis coarctata, and Juncus spp. are present in a mowed, unfertilized, undrained plot. The unmowed plot visible in background is dominated by Nyssa sylvatica and other tree species. Photo credit: John W. Stiller (used with permission). Photo 2: Plant community in a long-term study on the effects of fertilization, mowing, and hydrology in a coastal plain wetland. The community in a mowed, fertilized, drained plot shows lower diversity and is dominated by an upland species, Rhus copallinum. Photo credit: John W. Stiller (used with permission). These photographs illustrate the article “Long-term nutrient enrichment, mowing, and ditch drainage interact in the dynamics of a wetland plant community” by Carol Goodwillie, Michael W. McCoy and Ariane L. Peralta published in Ecosphere. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3252.
Highlights
Industrial processes, agricultural activities, and combustion are estimated to contribute substantially to atmospheric phosphorus and fixed nitrogen, resulting in dramatically increased deposition rates since pre-industrial times (Mahowald et al 2008, Wang et al 2015, Jia et al 2016)
Plant community analyses Species richness was affected by fertilization, mowing, and proximity to the ditch (Table 1, Fig. 2) and declined through time in all treatments
The effect of fertilizer on species richness was generally greater in mowed than in unmowed plots, but the interaction effect varied through time
Summary
Industrial processes, agricultural activities, and combustion are estimated to contribute substantially to atmospheric phosphorus and fixed nitrogen, resulting in dramatically increased deposition rates since pre-industrial times (Mahowald et al 2008, Wang et al 2015, Jia et al 2016). Primarily focused on grassland communities, have generally found that fertilization decreases species diversity (Silvertown et al 2006, reviewed in DiTommaso and Aarssen 1989, Gough et al 2000, Suding et al 2005, Clark et al 2007). Mechanisms proposed to explain the loss of diversity with higher nutrient availability include loss of rare species caused by reduced plant densities as biomass of individual plants increases (Oksanen 1996), reduced niche dimensionality (Harpole et al 2016, 2017), and alterations to competitive interactions. As productivity increases with nutrient availability, competitive exclusion by species best able to access light drives diversity downward (Goldberg and Miller 1990, Borer et al 2014) and can cause dramatic shifts in plant community composition
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