Publicação
Contribution to the monitoring of Ria de Aveiro salt marsh vegetation by combining ecological and hydrodynamic data
| Resumo: | Salt marshes are among the most valuable ecosystems on earth, however, over the last decades scientists have been observing losses in their extent accompanied by an impairment of their respective ecological processes. This degradation tendency has also been observed at Ria de Aveiro’s salt marshes and reflects the harmful interplay between anthropic pressures and pervasive environmental changes. Although there have been great efforts to understand how Ria de Aveiro’s salt marshes may respond to these threats, investigations focused on a better understanding of the vegetation communities themselves are still lacking. In recent years, few studies have been devoted to the monitoring and investigation of communities’ zonation patterns leaving a big gap in our knowledge regarding their respective structuring and functioning, and thus, in our understanding of how they might respond to the growing adverse threats. As such, this study embodies an important effort to monitor, characterize and understand the ecological underlying processes linked to the flora of three representative salt marshes of Ria de Aveiro during a whole year. The monitoring results showed that the floristic communities at these sites are constituted by a core set of species that can remain unchanged for long periods. However, even more important was the validation of the occurrence of a trade-off between species-specific competitive abilities and physiological tolerances, as well as the assumptions proposed by the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. In addition, the combined analysis of several environmental, physicochemical, and hydrodynamic parameters with the main species distribution showed that soil elevation and hydroperiod are the most restrictive factors influencing the establishment of vegetation and that species themselves can influence their surroundings. Finally, it was also determined that the sedimentation rates in the studied marshes appear to be influenced by several factors, including sediment availability, biostabilization by different species, hydrodynamics and salinity, rates that in general seem to be decreasing in Ria de Aveiro. |
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| Autores principais: | Gouveia, Marisa José Marques |
| Assunto: | Environmental changes Halophytes Hydroperiod Sedimentation Topographic profile Vegetation zonation |
| Ano: | 2022 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Aveiro |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | RIA - Repositório Institucional da Universidade de Aveiro |
| Resumo: | Salt marshes are among the most valuable ecosystems on earth, however, over the last decades scientists have been observing losses in their extent accompanied by an impairment of their respective ecological processes. This degradation tendency has also been observed at Ria de Aveiro’s salt marshes and reflects the harmful interplay between anthropic pressures and pervasive environmental changes. Although there have been great efforts to understand how Ria de Aveiro’s salt marshes may respond to these threats, investigations focused on a better understanding of the vegetation communities themselves are still lacking. In recent years, few studies have been devoted to the monitoring and investigation of communities’ zonation patterns leaving a big gap in our knowledge regarding their respective structuring and functioning, and thus, in our understanding of how they might respond to the growing adverse threats. As such, this study embodies an important effort to monitor, characterize and understand the ecological underlying processes linked to the flora of three representative salt marshes of Ria de Aveiro during a whole year. The monitoring results showed that the floristic communities at these sites are constituted by a core set of species that can remain unchanged for long periods. However, even more important was the validation of the occurrence of a trade-off between species-specific competitive abilities and physiological tolerances, as well as the assumptions proposed by the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. In addition, the combined analysis of several environmental, physicochemical, and hydrodynamic parameters with the main species distribution showed that soil elevation and hydroperiod are the most restrictive factors influencing the establishment of vegetation and that species themselves can influence their surroundings. Finally, it was also determined that the sedimentation rates in the studied marshes appear to be influenced by several factors, including sediment availability, biostabilization by different species, hydrodynamics and salinity, rates that in general seem to be decreasing in Ria de Aveiro. |
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