Article
Environmental Sciences
Guangliang Zhang, Jia Jia, Qingqing Zhao, Wei Wang, Dawei Wang, Junhong Bai
Summary: Plant invasion has a profound impact on microbial-driven processes in the ecosystem, but little is known about the seasonality of soil microbial communities and their assembly under plant invasion. This study examined coastal salt marshes in the Yellow River Estuary, North China, and characterized the bacterial and fungal communities and their seasonal variance using metabarcoding sequencing. The results showed strong seasonal variances in microbial communities, but plant invasion reduced the seasonal variation strength of soil bacteria. Soil pH was found to be the key abiotic factor driving the seasonal changes in bacteria and fungi. These findings reveal the strong seasonal variability of different soil microbial constituents in plant-invaded coastal salt marshes and suggest the linkage between microbial community assembly and microbial-mediated functions in the context of plant invasions.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Guangliang Zhang, Junhong Bai, Christoph C. Tebbe, Laibin Huang, Jia Jia, Wei Wang, Xin Wang, Lu Yu, Qingqing Zhao
Summary: This study investigates the effects of plant invasions on soil microbial communities and functions in salt marshes. It finds that microbial diversity is positively correlated with the duration of invasion, and both bacterial and fungal communities show consistent changes with invasion. The metabolic potential of soil microbes decreases in response to invasion, leading to carbon accumulation in invaded salt marshes. Bacteria and fungi have distinct contributions to microbial community assembly along the invasion gradient.
Article
Ecology
Tyler M. Rippel, Jewel Tomasula, Billie Maguire, Shannon M. Murphy, Gina M. Wimp
Summary: Litter decomposition is a crucial ecosystem function that is impacted by global change factors such as species loss and nitrogen pollution. A field experiment in a coastal salt marsh showed that increasing densities of detritivorous snails and adding nitrogen can enhance litter decomposition rates. Additionally, snails, other detritivores, and soil NH4+ were found to be the best predictors of litter mass loss during the decomposition process.
Review
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Pei Xin, Alicia Wilson, Chengji Shen, Zhenming Ge, Kevan B. Moffett, Isaac R. Santos, Xiaogang Chen, Xinghua Xu, Yvonne Y. Y. Yau, Willard Moore, Ling Li, D. A. Barry
Summary: Salt marshes are important ecosystems that provide essential ecological services, but they have been lost globally due to human activities and climate change. The interactions between tidal water and groundwater in salt marshes affect plant growth and biogeochemical exchange with coastal water. However, there are still significant knowledge gaps regarding the hydrological and ecological links in salt marshes and the challenges they face.
REVIEWS OF GEOPHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Wenwen Liu, Steven C. Pennings
Summary: This study explored the importance of plant species and different habitat conditions to synchrony in plant productivity across coastal marsh habitats in Georgia, USA. Synchrony was highest within a plant species and within a marsh zone, and decreased across species with increasing distance and elevational differences. Abiotic conditions, such as water column temperature and salinity, also showed high synchrony among sites, pointing to the Moran effect as a likely explanation for the findings.
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Xiaoting Zhang, Lujian Lin, Hanyi Li, Shanle Liu, Shuai Tang, Bo Yuan, Hualong Hong, Manlin Su, Jingchun Liu, Chongling Yan, Haoliang Lu
Summary: This study investigated the characteristics and formation mechanism of iron plaques on plastic surfaces in coastal wetlands, as well as their relationship with environmental factors and microbes. The results showed that iron plaques increased the adhesive force and promoted the oxidation of plastic surfaces. Salinity, anaerobic conditions, natural organic matter, and weak alkaline scenarios were found to stimulate the formation of iron plaques. The iron content was positively correlated with the loading of heavy metals. Nitrospirae was identified as a positive regulator of iron plaque, while Verrucomicrobia and Kir-itimatiellaeota may act as depressants by consuming salt.
JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
(2024)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Sarah C. Crosby, Nicole C. Spiller, Devan S. Healy, Lauren Brideau, Luke M. Stewart, Jamie M. P. Vaudrey, Kasey E. Tietz, Peter J. Fraboni
Summary: Excess nitrogen in coastal waters poses a threat to ecosystems, particularly salt marshes, but studies in Long Island Sound suggest that its role in driving salt marsh loss may be less significant than previously thought. Eutrophication continues to be a critical issue for these ecosystems despite aggressive nitrogen reduction efforts in the region.
ESTUARIES AND COASTS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sinead M. Crotty, Daniele Pinton, Alberto Canestrelli, Hallie S. Fischman, Collin Ortals, Nicholas R. Dahl, Sydney Williams, Tjeerd J. Bouma, Christine Angelini
Summary: This study reveals that the mussel, Geukensia demissa, has a significant effect on saltmarsh accretion in the southeastern US, with deposition being 2.8-10.7 times higher on mussel aggregations compared to other marsh locations. The study also predicts that mussels drive substantial changes to the magnitude and spatial patterning of accretion at marsh domain scales. Moreover, a manipulative experiment involving over 200,000 mussels shows that the faunal engineer has a much larger impact on relative marsh accretion rates than expected. Therefore, there is a critical need for empirical, experimental, and modeling work to understand the importance of faunal engineers in modifying the persistence of coastal ecosystems globally.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tian Xie, Qing Wang, Zhonghua Ning, Cong Chen, Baoshan Cui, Junhong Bai, Wei Shi, Bo Pang
Summary: The invasibility of an ecosystem measures its resistance to plant invasion, with human activities playing a key role in altering lateral hydrological connectivity and potentially making the ecosystem more susceptible to invasion.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Limnology
Man Qi, Jessica MacGregor, Keryn Gedan
Summary: Interior marsh pond formation can be differentiated by temporal vegetation changes and spatial configuration from accretion deficit and other disturbances. Flood tolerant plants displace flood intolerant species landward of ponds, while a reverse species transition is observed seaward due to tidal creek incision alleviating interior marsh inundation.
LIMNOLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Jose L. Rolando, Max Kolton, Tianze Song, Joel E. Kostka
Summary: This study investigated the relationship between the root microbiome of Spartina alterniflora and its health and productivity, and found that the root microbiome plays an important role in regulating the plant host. The presence of highly active and competitive species in the root microbiome, as well as their correlation with plant productivity, suggests the involvement of the root microbiome in regulating and enhancing the primary productivity of S. alterniflora.
Article
Plant Sciences
Maogeng Yang, Shoukun Chen, Zhangping Huang, Shang Gao, Tingxi Yu, Tingting Du, Hao Zhang, Xiang Li, Chun-Ming Liu, Shihua Chen, Huihui Li
Summary: This study identified 16 high-affinity K+ transporter genes in Spartina alterniflora, which play important roles in salt tolerance and ion homeostasis. These genes are valuable resources for breeding salt-tolerant crops.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tyler Lynn, Merryl Alber, Jacob Shalack, Deepak R. Mishra
Summary: This study utilized UAV technology to collect images from January 2020 to December 2021 and used classification analysis to characterize the distribution and environmental drivers of wrack. The study found that wrack patches were mainly located near the mean higher high water line and were influenced by tidal events.
ESTUARIES AND COASTS
(2023)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Lathadevi K. K. Chintapenta, Katharine I. I. Ommanney, Gulnihal Ozbay
Summary: Human activities in wetlands and seasonal changes can affect the concentrations of heavy metals in soil and the types of marsh vegetation. The study found that different types of wetland vegetation and the ion composition of the soil can influence the levels of heavy metals.
FRONTIERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Dandan Yan, Jingtai Li, Xiuying Yao, Zhaoqing Luan
Summary: This study integrated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and field sampling data to assess the ecological response of Spartina alterniflora to inundation and salinity gradients. The results showed that soil salinity significantly affected the growth of S. alterniflora. This is the first spatially quantitative analysis to study the ecohydrological mechanism driving the growth of S. alterniflora.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
