Can community structure track sea-level rise? Stress and competitive controls in tidal wetlands.

ABSTRACT: Climate change impacts, such as accelerated sea-level rise, will affect stress gradients, yet impacts on competition/stress tolerance trade-offs and shifts in distributions are unclear. Ecosystems with strong stress gradients, such as estuaries, allow for space-for-time substitutions of stress factors and can give insight into future climate-related shifts in both resource and nonresource stresses. We tested the stress gradient hypothesis and examined the effect of increased inundation stress and biotic interactions on growth and survival of two congeneric wetland sedges, Schoenoplectus acutus and Schoenoplectus americanus. We simulated sea-level rise across existing marsh elevations and those not currently found to reflect potential future sea-level rise conditions in two ti

SUBMITTER: Schile LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5305999 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature