Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Recovery of a northern New England salt marsh plant community from winter icing

  • Community Ecology
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

High latitude salt marsh plant communities are frequently exposed to conspicuous winter ice disturbances, which trigger secondary succession. In this paper, we document the recovery of a northern New England salt marsh from a severe winter icing event in 1998. Ice disturbances that killed plants but that left the underlying peat intact recovered rapidly. However, ice damage that killed plants and removed the underlying peat, led to areas of physiologically harsh edaphic conditions, specifically waterlogged and anoxic soils that limited plant recolonization. A transplant experiment revealed that only the most stress-tolerant plants were capable of invading the most stressful portions of ice disturbances. A second experiment that artificially dried disturbance patches accelerated patch recovery. These data suggest that recovery from intense ice disturbance is dependent on stress-tolerant plants invading edaphically harsh disturbances, eventually facilitating the recolonization of the community. This process likely takes longer than a decade for full recovery to occur in the areas where both plants and the peat base are removed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 7A, B.
Fig. 8A, B.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adam P (1990) Saltmarsh ecology. Cambridge University Press, UK

  • Alpert P (1990) Water sharing among ramets in a desert population of Distichlis spicata (Poaceae). Am J Bot 77:1648–1651

    Google Scholar 

  • Alpert P (1991) Nitrogen sharing among ramets increases clonal growth in Fragaria chiloensis. Oecologia 70:227–233

    Google Scholar 

  • Amsberry L, Baker MA, Ewanchuk PJ, Bertness MD (2000) Clonal integration and the expansion of Phragmites australis. Ecol Appl 10:1110–1118

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong W, Wright EJ, Lythe S, Gaynard T J (1995) Plant zonation and the effects of the spring-neap tidal cycle on soil aeration in Humber salt marsh. J Ecol 73:323–339

    Google Scholar 

  • Bazzaz FA (1979) The physiological ecology of plant succession. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 10:351–371

    Google Scholar 

  • Bélanger L, Bédard J (1994) Role of ice scouring and goose grubbing in marsh plant dynamics. J Ecol 82:437–445

    Google Scholar 

  • Bélanger L, Bédard J (1995) Use of ice scoured depressions by marsh foraging snow geese (Chen caerulescens atlantica). Can J Zool 73:253–259

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertness MD (1991a) Interspecific interactions among high marsh perennials in a New England salt marsh. Ecology 72:125-137

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertness MD (1991b) Zonation of Spartina patens and Spartina alterniflora in a New England salt marsh. Ecology 72:138–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertness MD (1992) The ecology of a New England salt marsh. Am Sci 80:260–268

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertness MD (1999) The ecology of Atlantic shores. Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass.

  • Bertness MD, Ellison AM (1987) Determinates of pattern in a New England salt marsh plant community. Ecol Monogr 57:1842–1851

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertness MD, Ewanchuk PJ (2002) Latitudinal and climate-driven variation in the strength and nature of biological interactions in New England salt marshes. Oecologia 132:392–401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bertness MD, Shumway SW (1993) Competition and facilitation in marsh plants. Am Nat 142:718–724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bertness MD, Gough L, Shumway SW (1992) Salt tolerances and the distribution of fugitive salt marsh plants. Ecology 73:1842–1851

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer SJ, Bertness MD (1996) Disturbance and interspecific variation in the clonal morphology of salt marsh perennials. Oikos 77:107–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer JS, Levine JM, Bertness MD (1998) Interactive effects of elevation and burial with wrack on plant community structure in some Rhode Island salt marshes. J Ecol 86:125–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clements FE (1936) Nature and structure of the climax. J Ecol 24:252–284

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell JH, Slayter RO (1977) Mechanisms of succession in natural communities and their role in community stability and organization. Am Nat 111:1119–1144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis RM, Cantlon JE (1969) Effect of size area open to colonization on species composition in early old-field succession. Bull Torrey Bot Club 96:660–673

    Google Scholar 

  • Dionne JC (1969) Tidal flat erosion by ice at La Pocatiere, St. Lawrence estuary. J Sediment Petrol 39:174–1181

    Google Scholar 

  • Dionne JC (1974) Mud cracks and polygons on ice push ridges in lower tidal flats of the St. Lawrence estuary. Can J Earth Sci 11:489–494

    Google Scholar 

  • Eichorn D, Longley D, Teske J (2001) The January 1998 ice storm. In: New York Society of American Foresters Ice Storm Symposium. NA-TP-03–01. USDA Forest Service, Cortland, N.Y.

  • Ewanchuk PJ (2003) The ecology of Northern New England salt marsh plant communities. PhD Dissertation, Brown University, Providence, R.I.

  • Farrell TM (1989) Succession in a rocky intertidal community: the importance of disturbance size and position within a disturbed patch. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 128:57–73

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrell TM (1991) Models and mechanisms of succession: an example from a rocky intertidal community. Ecol Monogr 6:95–113

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford MA, Grace JB (1998) The interactive effects of fire and herbivory on a coastal marsh in Louisiana. Wetlands 18:1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Gough L, Grace JB (1998) Herbivore effects on plant species density at varying productivity levels. Ecology 79:1586–1594

    Google Scholar 

  • Grime JP (1977) Evidence for the existence of three primary strategies in plants and its relevance to ecological and evolutionary theory. Am Nat111:1169–1194

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardwick-Witman MN (1985) Biological consequences of ice rafting in a New England salt marsh community. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol 87:283–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartman JM (1988) Recolonization of small disturbance patches in a New England salt marsh. Am J Bot 75:625–1631

    Google Scholar 

  • Hik DS, Jefferies RL, Sinclair ARE (1992) Foraging by geese, isostatic uplift and asymmetry in the development of salt-marsh plant communities. J Ecol 80:395–406

    Google Scholar 

  • Howes BL, Howarth RW, Teal JM, Valiela I (1981) Oxidation-reduction potentials in a salt marsh: spatial patterns and interactions with primary production. Limnol Oceanogr 26:350–360

    Google Scholar 

  • Howes BL, Dacey JWH, Goehringer DD (1986) Factors controlling the growth form of Spartina alterniflora: feedbacks between above-ground production, sediment oxidation, nitrogen and salinity. J Ecol 74:881–898

    Google Scholar 

  • Irland LC (1998) Ice storm 1998 and the forests of the northeast. J For 96:32–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Jefferies RL (1988) Vegetational mosaics, plant animal interactions and resources for plant's growth. In: Gottlieb LD, Jain SK (eds) Plant evolutionary biology. Chapman and Hall, London

  • Lubchenco J (1983) Littorina and Fucus: effects of herbivores, substratum heterogeneity, and plant escapes during succession. Ecology 64:1116–1123

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathieson AC, Penniman CA, Busse PK, Tveter-Gallagher E (1982) Effects of ice on Ascophyllum nodosum within the Great Bay estuary system of New Hampshire-Maine. J Phycol 18:331–336

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller WB, Egler FE (1950) Vegetation of the Wequetequock-Pawcatuck tidal marshes, Connecticut. Ecol Monogr 20:143–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitsch WJ, Gosselink JG (1993) Wetlands. VanNostrand Reinhold, New York

  • Paine RT, Levin SA (1981) Intertidal landscapes: Disturbance and the dynamics of pattern. Ecol Monogr 51:145–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennings SC, Bertness MD (2001) Salt marsh communities. In: Bertness MD, Gaines S, Hay ME (eds) Marine community ecology. Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass.

  • Pennings SC, Callaway RM (1992) Salt marsh plant zonation: the relative importance and physical factors. Ecology 73:681–690

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickett STA, White PS (1985) The ecology of natural disturbances and patch dynamics. Academic Press, New York

  • Redfield AC (1972) Development of a New England salt marsh. Ecol Monogr 42:201–237

    Google Scholar 

  • Reidenbaugh TG, Banta WC (1980) Origin and effects of tidal wrack in a Virginia salt marsh. Gulf Res Rep 6:393–401

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhoads AG, Hamburg SP, Fahey TJ, Siccama TG, Hane EN, Battles J, Cogbill C, Randall J, Wilson G (2002) Effects of an intense ice storm on the structure of a northern hardwood forest. Can J For Res 32:1763–1775

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SAS (1995) JMP user's guide. SAS, Cary, N.C., USA

  • Shumway SW (1995) Physiological integration among clonal ramets during invasion of disturbance patches in New England salt marsh. Ann Bot 76:225–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith TJ III, Odum WE (1981) The effects of grazing by snow geese on coastal salt marshes. Ecology 62:98–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Sousa WP (1979) Disturbance in marine intertidal boulder fields: the nonequilibrium maintenance of species diversity. Ecology 60:1225–1239

    Google Scholar 

  • Sousa WP (1984) Intertidal mosaics: patch size, propagule availability, and spatial variable patterns of succession. Ecology 65:1918–1935

    Google Scholar 

  • Sousa WP (2001) Natural disturbances and the dynamics of marine benthic communities. In: Bertness MD, Gaines S, Hay ME (eds) Marine community ecology. Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass.

  • Sousa WP, Connell JP (1992) Grazing and succession in marine algae. In: John DM, Hawkins SJ, Price JH (eds) Plant-animal interactions in the marine benthos. Systematics Association, special volume no. 46. Clarendon, Oxford

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a National Estuarine Research Reserve Graduate Fellowship (P.J.E.) and by the Andrew Mellon Foundation (M.D.B.). We thank Caitlin Mullan, Cheryl Helms, and Nancy Emery without whom this project would not have been possible. Michele Dionne and all the staff at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve deserve special thanks for facilitating our work at their reserve. This manuscript was greatly improved by the thoughtful comments of C. Mullan, J. Witman, and B. Silliman.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Box G-W, Providence, RI 02912, USA

    Patrick J. Ewanchuk & Mark D. Bertness

Authors
  1. Patrick J. Ewanchuk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mark D. Bertness
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrick J. Ewanchuk.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ewanchuk, P.J., Bertness, M.D. Recovery of a northern New England salt marsh plant community from winter icing. Oecologia 136, 616–626 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-003-1303-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-003-1303-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation