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- Info
Responses of forested wetland vegetation to perturbations of water chemistry and hydrology
| Author: |
Ehrenfeld, Joan G.; Schneider, John P. |
| Date: |
1993 |
| Periodical: |
Wetlands |
| Abstract: |
Nineteen mature Atlantic white-cedar swamps, located in four categories of undeveloped and suburban watersheds of the New Jersey Pinelands, were studied to determine the relationship between perturbations of water quality and hydrology and changes in species composition and community structure. Rank-orders of the 19 sites were compared for key variables (ground-water and surface-water NH, and PO„ mean water-table level and water-table range). Rank orders for the sites were different for the various parameters, suggesting little congruence among water quality and hydrologic changes at wetlands within urban basins. Changes in species composition, measured as the number of invading species, were correlated with the number of perturbed chemical and hydrologic parameters and were not related to the absolute magnitude of any one parameter. Sites in developed watersheds supported a larger fraction of facultative upland and upland species than did sites in undisturbed watersheds; this change could affect wetland delineation of urban wetlands. Urbanization thus increases variability in environmental quality among sites of a given type of wetland and fosters an increase in proportion of non-hydrophytic vegetation within such wetlands. |
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