Monitoring and assessment of wetland condition using plant morphologic and physiologic indicators

FEDERICO MOLLARD; LEE FOOTE; MATTHEW WILSON; VARINA CRISFIELD; SUZANNE BAYLEY

WETLANDS

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2013 vol. 33 p. 939 - 947

0277-5212

We created and evaluated indices of plant performance using plant morphological and physiological attributes and assessed their potential as wetland condition indicators by studying their consistency along a stress gradient. Based on Spearman coefficients, we selected promising morphological and physiological metrics that showed consistent responses along a physico-chemical stress gradient. Metrics consistently associated with wetland condition were ranked and combined into morphological (mPPI) or physiological Plant Performance Indices (phPPI). Six morphological metrics were able to discern between good and poor wetland conditions along the impact gradient and were thereafter combined into the mPPI. The resulting mPPI was found to be a strong indicator of stress and accurately identified degraded wetlands (rs = -0.52; P = 0.030). In contrast, most of the physiologic metrics showed lower correlations to the stress gradient. Consequently, the resulted phPPI had a lack of association with the stress gradient and failed to identify even heavily-impacted wetlands (rs = -0.30; P = 0.194). We conclude that the morphological characteristics of plants, the reliability of the mPPI, and its ability to simply and easily convey habitat information makes it worthy of further refinement and validation as a tool for evaluating mitigation and restoration efforts in wetlands.