Wetland Plant Communities Research Articles

Detecting the effects of water regime on wetland plant communities: Which plant indicator groups perform best?

Water regime is a primary driver of patterns in wetland vegetation composition. Differences in composition can be used as indicators of differences in water regime. We used vegetation point intercept data collected from 51 wetland monitoring plots in the Blue Mountains, south-eastern Australia, to determine which of three indicator group classifications, growth forms, water plant functional groups (WPFGs) or wetland indicator categories (WICs), demonstrated the most consistent differences between vegetation communities from plot sample groups differing in location (wetland edge or core) and surface water availability (typically inundated or damp). PERMANOVA tests showed significant differences between core and edge plot communities analysed by growth form or WIC relative frequencies, but only when tree canopy data (higher in edge plots, which were abutting woodland) was included. Significant differences in communities (PERMANOVA, p≤0.02) were detected between inundation categories for all classification methods when tree data were included, but not for WIC data when tree data were excluded. Overall, ordination plots and ANOSIM R values showed the most consistent community-level differences (least overlap in sample groups) between inundation categories when data were classified by WPFGs, followed by growth forms. ANOVA tests on individual indicator group relative frequencies showed that WPFG classification provided the most indicator groups differing significantly in relative frequency between inundation categories, with these groups also collectively comprising a much higher proportion of the total vegetation recorded per plot than the growth forms or WICs that differed between categories.

Responses of Plant Community Composition and Eco-Physiological Characteristics of Dominant Species to Different Soil Hydrologic Regimes in Alpine Marsh Wetlands on Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, China

Shifts in soil water content affect seasonal wetland plant communities worldwide, but little is known about the responses and influences of plant communities to soil water content on Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. To determine the relationship between soil water content and plant community structure in seasonally wet alpine marshes, we investigated plant community structures at different soil water content amounts in the field station at sampling sites. We selected and determined eco-physiological characteristics of species belonging to three different functional types (sedges, grasses, forbs) exposed to the same soil water regimes as characteristics in field station and under experimental flooding conditions in controlled treatments on pots plants. The field investigation indicated that decreased soil moisture (from 57 to 43 % m3 m−3) during the growing season was significantly associated with reductions in aboveground biomass, average plant height, and species richness. A shift in dominant plant species within the communities from sedges and grasses to some forbs accompanied the decrease in soil moisture. The controlled treatments demonstrated that the sedge and grass species had higher net photosynthetic rates and higher instantaneous water-use efficiencies than the forb species in the studied communities. The results indicate that shifts in wetland plant community structure and function are the result of longer dry periods and more intense rainfall events. This positive feedback suggests that changes in plant community composition could intensify soil drought conditions in seasonally wet alpine marshes in the future.

Estimating the Importance of Aquatic Primary Productivity for Phosphorus Retention in Florida Everglades Mesocosms

Constructed wetlands are being utilized to mitigate the impact that excess phosphorus in surface water has on the natural state of the Florida Everglades. This study investigates the role of aquatic metabolism in the retention of phosphorus in wetlands and how it varies with plant community. Eighteen 6-m2 mesocosms receiving inflows with relatively low phosphorus concentrations were planted with one of five wetland plant communities or left to natural colonization. In 2012, the mesocosms left to naturally colonize had significantly higher aquatic gross primary production (GPP) at 7.0 g O2 m−2 d−1 than all other communities. Mesocosms planted with Nymphaea odorata and those planted with a mix of Najas guadalupensis and Chara sp. had significantly higher GPP (5.5 and 5.9 g O2 m−2 d−1, respectively) than those with Typha domingensis, Eleocharis cellulosa, and Cladium jamaicense (1.7, 2.3, and 1.5 g O2 m−2 d−1, respectively). Rates of phosphorus cycling due to aquatic metabolism were estimated to range from 2.5 g P m−2 yr−1 in both the Cladium and Eleocharis communities to 7.7 g P m−2 yr−1in the naturally colonized mesocosms. These results provide evidence that wetland plant communities without high-biomass emergent macrophytes may perform best in the retention of phosphorus in low inflow concentration conditions.

Characterizing daily water-level fluctuation intensity and water quality relationships with plant communities in Lake Ontario coastal wetlands

Seasonal and multi-year water-level fluctuations in the Laurentian Great Lakes maintain wetland vegetation diversity and wildlife habitat value, but little is known about the relationship between daily water-level fluctuations (wind tides and seiches) and plant community attributes. We used portable water-level loggers to determine mean daily fluctuation intensity (FI) at different timescales in selected Lake Ontario wetlands of various hydrogeomorphic types. Among years, FI varied across sites but was more consistent within sites and was significantly higher in open embayments than in drowned rivermouths or protected embayments. Of the time-scales considered (15, 30, 60, and 120min), 15-minute intervals gave the best resolution in FI among wetlands. We examined associations between FI and vegetation coverage of seven guilds: submerged and rooted floating-leaved vegetation (SAV), free-floating, non-persistent emergent (NPE), Typha spp., meadow marsh (MM), shrub, and upland at 20-cm elevation increments along transects from approximately 0.8m deep to 1.2m upland while accounting for poor water quality, which is known to decrease vegetation coverage. Wetlands with higher conductivity had less SAV, free-floating, and NPE coverage, while wetlands with high turbidity had marginally less SAV and Typha spp., but more free-floating coverage. Wetlands with higher FIs had more NPE vegetation in shallow depths and more MM but less shrub and upland coverage at elevations above the long-term average water level, suggesting that FI is a hydrologic factor in vegetation establishment. These results can be used for modeling Lake Ontario plant communities and support adaptive management monitoring following a water-level regulation change.

Assembly of plant communities in coastal wetlands—the role of saltcedarTamarix chinensisduring early succession

Aims The mechanisms of plant community assembly are hypothesized to vary at different stages of succession. Here, we explore the local assemblage structure of a herbaceous plant community at its early stage of succession in a supratidal wetland. Specifically, we assess the role of Chinese saltcedar (Tamarix chinensis), the lone dominant shrub species, in shaping the spatial structure and species composition in the local plant community, after landscape alteration. Methods We used the multivariate trend-surface analysis for analyzing the spatial structure of the community composition. A null model was also used to detect potential biotic interactions between species. Statistical significance was derived from a permutation test by randomizing the presence-absence matrix and functional traits independently. Sensitivity analysis by randomly selecting 50 subplots and repeating the null model tests was also done. Finally, rank correlation analysis was used to study the relationship between effect sizes and distance to nearest T. chinensis individuals. Important Findings The herbaceous plant community was highly structured and shaped by the presence of T. chinensis. At local scale, two functional traits, plant height and leaf area, were found to be significantly convergent. Dispersal, environmental stress and interspecific competition played a trivial effect on the local community assembly. The facilitating effect of T. chinensis on the pioneering herbaceous plants, through acting as a wind shelter, was put forward as the dominant community assembly process.

An open-source spatio-dynamic wetland model of plant community responses to hydrological pressures

Semiarid Mediterranean saline wetlands are semi-terrestrial ecosystems, which yearly undergo dry periods of several months, and shelter a rich, endemic and sensitive biota. In the last decades, the expansion of agricultural irrigated areas in semiarid Mediterranean catchments has led to altered inputs of water and nutrients to lowland wetlands. Hydrological alterations have affected characteristic plant communities, resulting in the replacement of valuable halophilic salt marsh and salt steppe plant communities by more generalist and opportunistic taxa, such as Phragmites australis (reed beds). A spatio-dynamic model and library were developed that aimed to explain the spatial distribution of three characteristic wetland plant communities in a semiarid Mediterranean wetland site in response to hydrological pressures from the catchment. Wetland plant communities and watershed irrigated agricultural areas were mapped by means of remote sensing at several dates between 1984 and 2008 and were partly used as forcing inputs and validation data. A dynamic model was initially developed using Stella software and then converted into R language by means of the StellaR software. Spatial dimension was added including neighbourhood and spatial flow algorithms representing the dispersion of plant communities. The conversion between plant communities was caused by the increase in water inflows from the watershed, mediated by spatial parameters, such as the distance to ephemeral rivers and the flow accumulation map within the wetland site. Results of the model were in agreement with remote sensing data, showing that in 2008 salt steppe had lost a half of its original area, whereas salt marsh and reed beds expanded extensively. The model developed in this study is available online as an R library, including all necessary input data sets and maps and documentation to run it. The model library offers a flexible tool that suits the needs of both advanced modellers and neophytes. Free and open source software and online code sharing repositories are proposed as modelling tools for future research.

Kite-based Aerial Photography (KAP): A Low Cost, Effective Tool for Wetland Research

The development and utilization of new technologies in wetland research is key for advancing knowledge, conservation, and management of these important ecosystems. While satellite-based remote sensing has proven valuable for understanding mostly regional to continental scale changes in wetlands, the high spatial heterogeneity of wetland plant communities and landscape units has proven challenging to characterize with the use of satellite technologies

Carbon sequestration in different wetland plant communities in the Big Cypress Swamp region of southwest Florida

Wetlands offer many ecosystem services, including the long-term sequestering of carbon (C) in soil. Here we present a study of C sequestration rates in a relatively undisturbed wetland landscape of southwest Florida. Accordingly, carbon sequestration was determined in four wetland plant communities and an adjacent hydric pine flatwood community that represent a gradient of inundation extent. Going from the wettest to the driest, communities were designated as: deep slough, bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), wet prairie and pond cypress (Taxodium distichum var. imbricarium). An adjacent hydric pine flatwood community was also included in the study as a reference upland site. Three soil cores were collected from each of these communities and were analyzed for total C content. Core samples were also analyzed for 137Cs and 210Pb activity to estimate accretion rates. C sequestration rates (g-C m−2 yr−1) were the highest in the deep slough (98 ± 9) and bald cypress (98 ± 5) followed by the pond cypress (64 ± 7), wet prairie (39 ± 1) and pine flatwood (22 ± 5). These results suggest that impediment of decomposition by anaerobic conditions caused by prolonged wet cycles, may not account for all the variability in C sequestration rates observed in this subtropical setting. Instead, this variability could also be attributed to other factors like the quantity and chemical composition of the organic material reaching the soil. When methane emissions are taken into account, cypress-dominated (bald and pond cypress) and the deep slough communities act as net carbon sinks.

Optimising a Sampling Design for Endangered Wetland Plant Communities: Another Call for Adaptive Management in Monitoring

Effective monitoring requires clear questions and a well-designed sampling regime. However, objectives often evolve over time which can render the initial sampling design ineffective. Using a vegetation monitoring program employed in Newnes Plateau Shrub Swamps, Australia, as a case study, we examine a sampling design based on small numbers of 400 m2 plots to assess if it can meet the stated monitoring objectives of detecting significant changes in number and abundance of species per wetland. To determine this, we intensively sampled four monitored wetlands using randomly distributed 4 m2 plots to obtain representative estimates of species composition and abundance. The 400 m2 plots captured 91 % of the common species and a similar proportional distribution of life-forms as found in the 4 m2 plots, but missed 62 % of the sparse species found in 4 m2 plots. Insufficient replication of 400 m2 plots made detection of statistically significant changes at the swamp scale difficult or impossible. Our review showed the weak sampling design was contributed to by 1) an initial lack of clearly stated management triggers and 2) changes in monitoring objectives and triggers over time, without revising the sampling design. We highlight the need for an adaptive approach to monitoring.

Inundation and precipitation effects on growth and flowering of the high marsh species Juncus gerardii

Accelerated sea level rise threatens coastal wetland plant communities where coastal development restricts transgression, and inundation increases and declining sediment supplies limit the capacity of coastal wetlands to build in elevation. Juncus gerardii Loisel., black needle rush, is a high latitude cosmopolitan plant species and, within salt marshes of the U.S. mid-Atlantic and New England coasts, it occupies a narrow belt along the marsh-upland border. Examination of historic aerial photography, vegetation resurveys, and peat composition analysis for U.S. Northeastern marshes have shown vegetation change patterns indicative of increased inundation, including decline of J. gerardii. To interpret loss patterns for J. gerardii in southern New England, we conducted a factorial experiment to establish its sensitivity to inundation and drought. A strong relationship was found between inundation and growth for J. gerardii, which together with marsh elevation and water level data, suggests that growth is reduced by current flooding patterns. Examination of J. gerardii flowering also indicates that floret and inflorescence density vary with inundation, suggesting that negative impacts of sea level rise on Juncus may extend to seed production. Late spring and summer drought impacted neither J. gerardii growth nor its flowering, implying that J. gerardii is insensitive to below-average precipitation or drought during this time of year. We conclude that current inundation patterns are incompatible with robust growth for J. gerardii, and recommend conservation actions be focused on the marsh-upland border to facilitate the upslope migration of J. gerardii and other transitional high marsh plant species.

Non-Destructive Estimation of Aboveground Biomass in Sawgrass Communities of the Florida Everglades

The preservation, restoration, and management of ecologically sensitive wetland plant communities, such as found in the Florida Everglades, require methods to reliably and non-destructively assess their health and performance. The pin-intercept method is a technique commonly used in grasslands for non-destructively estimating aboveground plant biomass. In this study, we developed an algorithm for the estimation of aboveground sawgrass biomass using coupled pin-intercept and harvest methods at A.R.M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. Our data illustrates a positive relationship between aboveground biomass and the frequency of pin-intercepts as well as leaf area for sawgrass (Cladium mariscus). This pin-intercept method will serve as an effective, reliable tool for conservation and land management efforts in graminoid-dominated wetlands.

A functional‐trait approach reveals community diversity and assembly processes responses to flood disturbance in a subtropical wetland

AbstractDespite the strong effects of disturbance on plant community diversity and assembly, we do not fully understand how different aspects of taxonomic or functional diversity respond to disturbance or how different assembly processes change along a disturbance gradient. In this study, plant communities were sampled and the distributions of three functional traits were measured in 45 plots across a flood disturbance gradient in Poyang Lake wetland in China. We examined the within‐community means, ranges, variances, kurtoses, and other parameters of trait values. Results showed that the effects of disturbance depended largely on the aspects of diversity considered. Along the flood disturbance gradient, taxonomic/functional richness did not change, while Shannon–Wiener diversity and evenness and functional evenness and dispersion showed significant unimodal patterns. Communities experiencing the highest disturbance levels tended to have significantly shorter shoot heights with lower specific leaf area (SLA). We also found a significant non‐random functional trait distribution: a significant reduction in the range and variance of SLA and a more even distribution of the measured traits compared with the null model. Our results highlight that niche‐based assembly processes play structuring roles in wetland plant community response to flood disturbance gradients and that both environmental filtering and limiting similarity can work on the same traits (e.g., SLA) through hierarchical effects on the distribution of functional traits within communities.

Spatiotemporal relationships among Late Pennsylvanian plant assemblages: Palynological evidence from the Markley Formation, West Texas, U.S.A.

The Pennsylvanian lowlands of western Pangea are best known for their diverse wetland floras of arborescent and herbaceous ferns, and arborescent horsetails and clubmosses. In apparent juxtaposition, a very different kind of flora, dominated by a xerophilous assemblage of conifers, taeniopterids and peltasperms, is occasionally glimpsed. Once believed to represent upland or extrabasinal floras from well-drained portions of the landscape, these dryland floras more recently have been interpreted as lowland assemblages growing during drier phases of glacial/interglacial cycles. Whether Pennsylvanian dryland and wetland floras were separated spatially or temporally remains an unsettled question, due in large part to taphonomic bias toward preservation of wetland plants. Previous paleobotanical and sedimentological analysis of the Markley Formation of latest Pennsylvanian (Gzhelian) age, from north central Texas, U.S.A, indicates close correlation between lithofacies and distinct dryland and wetland megaflora assemblages. Here we present a detailed analysis one of those localities, a section unusual in containing abundant palynomorphs, from the lower Markley Formation. Paleobotanical, palynological and lithological data from a section thought to represent a single interglacial/glacial phase are integrated and analyzed to create a complex picture of an evolving landscape. Megafloral data from throughout the Markley Formation show that conifer-dominated dryland floras occur exclusively in highly leached kaolinite beds, likely eroded from underlying soils, whereas a mosaic of wetland floras occupy histosols, ultisols, and fluvial overbank deposits. Palynological data largely conform to this pattern but reveal a more complex picture. An assemblage of mixed wetland and dryland palynofloral taxa is interpolated between a dryland assemblage and an overlying histosol containing wetland taxa. In this section, as well as elsewhere in the Markley Formation, kaolinite and overlying organic beds appear to have formed as a single genetic unit, with the kaolinite forming an impermeable aquiclude upon which a poorly drained wetland subsequently formed. Within a single inferred glacial/interglacial cycle, lithological data indicate significant fluctuations in water availability tracked by changes in palynofloral and megafloral taxa. Palynology reveals that elements of the dryland floras appear at low abundance even within wetland deposits. The combined data indicate a complex pattern of succession and suggest a mosaic of dryland and wetland plant communities in the Late Pennsylvanian. Our data alone cannot show whether dryland and wetland assemblages succeed one another temporally, or coexisted on the landscape. However, the combined evidence suggests relatively close spatial proximity within a fragmenting and increasingly arid environment.

Regeneration of riparian forests of the Brazilian Pantanal under flood and fire influence

Flood and fire are considered ecological filters and can shape the structure of plant communities in tropical wetlands and floodable savannas, especially on regeneration. However, in systems exposed to recurrent flood and fire, there is little information on the vegetation effects and implications for management. To test the effects of fire on flood-prone riparian forests of the Brazilian Pantanal, we analyzed how natural flood and fire can interact and influence species composition, abundance, and richness of the woody regeneration. This neotropical savanna wetland is subjected to annual and predictable flood pulses and to occasional wildfires. We established 106 plots (2×5m) within the riparian forest of the Paraguay River in burned (recurrent) and unburned areas from 2001 to 2011 (verified on satellite images). We compared the plot topography with historic data of river levels from Ladário gauge in the same period. We sampled all trees, shrubs, and lianas from 0.3 to 2.5m high. Flood in plots varied from 38 (higher areas) to 98 (lower areas) daysyear−1. Our results show that variation in flood duration and occurrence of fire interact in a synergistic manner to reduce stem numbers on regeneration and modify species composition and distribution. Species richness differed in relation to flood duration, but not to fire. All growth forms had low number of exclusive species in both unburned and burned sites. Our results have implications for wetland management. The natural flooding regime is responsible for the diversity of habitats and species. Changes of the hydrology due to land management or climatic changes may result in changes of fire regime with consequences for the analyzed vegetation patterns and ecosystem functions. This neotropical savanna wetland system is stable and resilient as long as its natural patterns and periodicities of flooding and wildfires are maintained. Our results point to the necessity to analyze the interacting effects of selective environmental forces in order to be able to preserve the form and functions of the huge wetlands of the Pantanal.

Direct and mediate assessment of acidity in hydromorphic habitats in West Siberian Plain

The paper aims to show that mediate indication of environmental acidity conditions in hydromorphic habitats in the West Siberian Plain is possible by means of using indicator values for soil moisture and nutrient factors as substitute predictors. These factors are viewed as interrelated for plant communities located in the wetlands in the West Siberian Plain. Regression equations are introduced to assess the pH of soil solution in wetland plant communities.

Very High Resolution Plant Community Mapping at High Moor, Kushiro Wetland

Frequent monitoring of the state of wetlands is important in order to sustain these valuable ecosystems. Reliable reference maps make this monitoring more effective. A very high resolution and reliable vegetation map with a nominal spatial resolution of 2 cm by 2 cm was created for a study area in the high moor in the Kushiro wetland, Japan. The reference map was created using aerial photography recorded in the summer of 1998 with a 35 mm, non-metric camera mounted on a balloon. The study site contains 40 wetland plant community types covering about 10 ha of the high moor. The resulting map shows that belt-like spatial patterns of typical wetland plant community groups can be clearly distinguished and confirmed through visual interpretation and spatial pattern analysis. The optimal spatial resolution for monitoring vegetation in this area using remote sensing is 0.3 m or smaller.

Congruence of community thresholds in response to anthropogenic stress in Great Lakes coastal wetlands

Biological attributes of ecosystems often change nonlinearly as a function of anthropogenic and natural stress. Plant and animal communities may exhibit zones of change along a stressor gradient that are dispropor- tionate relative to the incremental change in the stressor. The ability to predict such transitions is essential for effective management intervention because they may indicate irreversible changes in ecological processes. De- spite the importance of recognizing transition zones along a stressor gradient, few, if any, investigators have examined these responses across multiple taxa, and no community threshold studies have been reported at large geographic scales. We surveyed benthic macroinvertebrate, fish, bird, diatom, and plant communities in coastal wetlands across a geospatially referenced gradient of anthropogenic stress in the Laurentian Great Lakes. We used Threshold Indicator Taxon Analysis (Baker and King 2010) to analyze each community's response to iden- tify potential zones of disproportionate change in community structure along gradients of major watershed-scale stress: agriculture and urban/suburban development. Our results show surprising congruence in community thresholds among different taxonomic groups, particularly with respect to % developed land in the watershed. We also analyzed uncertainty associated with the community-specific thresholds to understand the ability of different assemblages to predict stress. The high and congruent sensitivity of assemblages to development dem- onstrates that watershed-scale stress has discernible effects on all biological communities, with increasing poten- tial for ecosystem-scale functional changes. These findings have important implications for identifying reference- condition boundaries and for informing management and policy decisions, in particular, for selecting freshwater protected areas.

Intra-Floodplain Seed Dispersal Limitation and Wetland Community Restoration

The broadleaf marsh community in the post-restoration reaches of the Kissimmee River floodplain, Florida, US, has failed to achieve the expected dominance based on pre-disturbance conditions. We examined the hypothesis that seed dispersal is a limiting factor delaying the expansion of characteristic taxa of a dominant wetland plant community, broadleaf marsh, from remnant populations into a partially restored river floodplain. Hydrochory and anemochory seed traps were deployed in the Kissimmee River for two week periods during four sampling periods over the course of a year. Study plots were divided among an area influenced by backwater effects from a downstream water control structure and the substantially drier floodplain with more fragmented and degraded broadleaf marsh communities to the north. Seed trapping showed that seeds of characteristic broadleaf marsh taxa, e.g., bulltongue arrowhead ( Sagittaria lancifolia ), pickerelweed ( Pontederia cordata ), and common buttonbush ( Cephalanthus occidentalis ), were only rarely dispersed and in small volumes north of the confluence of Oak Creek. Seed limitation due to a partially restored physical environment may be one of the factors contributing to minimal recovery of wetland communities in the Kissimmee River floodplain. As with fragmented regional scale landscapes with substantial distances among patches and an inhospitable matrix ecosystem, our research indicates that seed limitation may also be an issue for wetland restoration at local scales in contiguous floodplain wetlands such as the Kissimmee River. Active revegetation practices may be necessary for accelerating expansion of plant communities in large-scale river/floodplain restoration projects where local seed sources are spatially and hydrologically constrained.

Contribution of different wetland plant species to the DOC exported from a mesocosm experiment in the Florida Everglades

Carbon stable isotopes were used to investigate the contribution of different wetland plant communities commonly found in the Everglades to the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) exported from a mesocosm experiment. The species conforming the different treatments in the mesocosms were: Typha domingensis Pers, Cladium jamaicense Crantz, Nymphaea sp., Nymphaea sp./Eleocharis sp., Najas guadalupensis [Spreng] Magnus/Chara sp. and Najas guadalupensis. Results indicate that Nymphaea sp./Eleocharis sp. and Najas guadalupensis/Chara sp. treatments functioned as temporary sinks for DOC, but over the study period all treatments were net sources of DOC. A two-source carbon isotope mixing model was used to estimate the contribution from inflow water and biomass into the outflow DOC in each treatment. DOC from biomass was relatively higher in treatments with emergent and floating vegetation (24–30%) than in treatments containing submerged aquatic vegetation (≤5%). The relevance of these findings for restoration and management in the context of the Everglades region, specifically its implications for organic phosphorus exports, are discussed.

Assessing wetland mitigation efforts using standing vegetation and seed bank community structure in neighboring natural and compensatory wetlands in north-central Texas

It is often presumed plant recruitment from the soil seed bank and nearby wetlands will be sufficient to establish a wetland plant community following the restoration or creation of wetland hydrology. This approach to wetland restoration was examined in four compensatory wetlands and a natural oxbow wetland (Oxbow) in a floodplain of the West Fork Trinity River in north-central Texas. We assessed: (1) similarities in vegetation and seed bank composition among natural and compensatory wetlands, (2) within site similarity of vegetation relative to its seed bank community, and (3) the effects of hydrology (Wet vs. Drained soil) on the germination of seeds from the seed bank. Species richness of the standing vegetation was variable across sites and years, however when pooled across years (2008–2009) vegetation and seed banks showed similar species richness (66 vs. 70 species). Fewer wetland species (i.e., species occurring in wetlands >50 % of the time) were observed in the vegetation relative to the seed bank (25 vs. 41 species), and seed banks of compensatory wetlands were more similar to the natural wetland than was the standing vegetation. In the seed bank study, location (i.e., site) significantly affected total species richness, wetland species richness, diversity, and germinated seeds m−2, however no significant effect of hydrology was detected. These results suggest hydrology alone is not sufficient to establish a desired wetland plant community in a created wetland and the inclusion of seed bank surveys with field vegetation surveys provides a more complete assessment of wetland creation and restoration.