Growth, decomposition, and nutrient retention of Cladium jamaicense Crantz and Typha domingensis Pers. in the Florida Everglades

doi:10.1016/0304-3770(91)90059-E

Aquatic Botany

Volume 40, Issue 3, 1991, Pages 203-224

https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3770(91)90059-E Get rights and content

Abstract

Estimates of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) gains and losses during annual macrophyte growth, death and 2 years decomposition were made along a gradient of surface water nutrient concentrations in the Florida Everglades.

Annual rates of P and N allocation to growing leaves, translocation or leaching from dying leaves, and retention in dead leaves of Cladium jamaicense Crantz and Typha domingensis Pers. were correlated to soluble reactive P and nitrate concentrations in surface water. Rates of each of these processes were higher in T. domingensis than in C. jamaicense, Cladium jamaicense rates increased linearly along the nutrient gradients, but did not fluctuate with yearly variations in soluble reactive P or nitrate concentrations. For T. domingensis, annual rates were strongly correlated with mean annual soluble reactive P and nitrate concentrations during specific sampling years. Responses of C. jamaicense to the nutrient gradient were characteristic of species competitive in an infertile habitat, while responses of T. domingensis were characteristic of species competitive in a fertile habitat.

The main effect of P and N enrichment on leaf nutrient flux was to accelerate translocation or leaching from dying tissue, rather than to increase retention in standing dead leaves. Freshly dead leaves retained only slightly greater quantities of P and N under enriched conditions in comparison to background conditions.

After 2 years of decomposition, approximately half of the leaf litter mass remained intact. Increasing P and N concentrations in decomposing leaf litter resulted in net uptake or retention of these elements after 2 years despite decreasing litter mass. The total amounts of P and N that were sequestered annually by T. domingensis after processes of leaf production, mortality and 2 years decomposition were lowest under non-enriched conditions and reached a maximum under a moderate level of enrichment.

Wetland ecosystems such as the Everglades, which developed under conditions of low nutrient supply, may offer a finite potential for accelerated nutrient retention when the exogenous nutrient supply increases as a result of human activities. However, a plant species such as C. jamaicense, that is adapted to a low-nutrient environment, may have a low nutrient threshold before it loses its competitive capability and its habitat is invaded by a species such as T. domingensis that is better adapted to a high-nutrient environment.

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Because the sediment nutrient along salinity and flooding gradients were not significantly different (Table 1), the nutrient supply status caused by tidal flooding was very likely affect decomposition as it could greatly alter the C/N ratios of litter. Davis (1991) studied the decomposition of Cladium jamaicense and Typha domingensis litters in Florida Everglades, and found that the decomposition was the lowest under non-enriched conditions and reached a maximum under a moderate level of enrichment. Verhoeven and Arts (1992) studied the Carex litter decomposition in mires with different water chemistry, and found that the conditions for cellulose decay were more suitable in the groundwater fed (base-rich) fen dominated by Carex diandra than in the rainwater fed (base-poor) fen with Carex acutiformis.
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Growth, decomposition, and nutrient retention of Cladium jamaicense Crantz and Typha domingensis Pers. in the Florida Everglades

Abstract

Aquat. Bot.

Aquat. Bot.

Agriculture Ecosystems Environ.

Effects of nitrogen levels on rates of oxygen consumption during decay of aquatic plants

Aquat. Bot.

Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater

Vacular plants for mineral nutrient removal from polluted waters

Econ. Bot.

Decomposition and nutrient exchange of litter in an alluvial swamp forest

Ecology

The effects of simulated sewage effluent upon decomposition, nutrient status and litter fall in a central Michigan peatland

The mineral nutrition of wild plants

Annu. Rev. Ecol. System.

The decomposition of standing and fallen litter of Typha glauca and Scirpus fluviatilis

Can. J. Bot.

The natural features of southern Florida

Fla. Geol. Soc. Geol. Bull. No. 25

Sawgrass and cattail production in relation to nutrient supply in the Everglades

Litter decomposition rates in the seasonal flooded Great Dismal Swamp

Ecology

The limiting role of phosphorus in a woodland stream ecosystem: effects of P enrichment on leaf decomposition and primary producers

Ecology

Methods for chemical analysis of water and wastes

EPA-600/4-79-020

Evidence for the existence of three primary strategies in plants and its relevance to ecological and evolutionary theory

Am. Nat.

Static and dynamic aspects of nitrogen cycling in the salt marsh graminoid Spartina alterniflora

Ecology

Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus dynamics during leaf decay in nutrient-enriched ecosystems

Freshwater Biol.

Northern natural wetland water treatment systems