Responses of CH_4 Emissions to Nitrogen Addition and Spartina alterniflora Invasion in Minjiang River Estuary, Southeast of China

The nitrogen （N） input and Spartina alterniflora invasion in the tidal marsh of the southeast of China are increasingly serious. To evaluate CH4 emissions in the tidal marsh as affected by the N inputs and S. alterniflora invasion, we measured CH4 emissions from plots with vegetated S. alterniflora and native Cyperus malaccensis, and fertilized with exogenous N at the rate of 0 （NO）, 21 （N1） and 42 （N2） g N/（m2.yr）, respectively, in the Shanyutan marsh in the Minjiang River estuary, the southeast of China. The average CH4 fluxes during the experiment in the C. malaccensis and S. alterniflora plots without N addition were 3.67 mg CHa/（m2.h） and 7.79 mg CH4/（m2-h）, respectively, suggesting that the invasion of S. alterniflora into the Minjiang River estuary stimulated CH4 emission. Exogenous N had positive effects on CH4 fluxes both in native and in invaded tidal marsh. The mean CH4 fluxes of NI and N2 treat- ments increased by 31.05% and 123.50% in the C. malaccensis marsh, and 63.88% and 7.55% in the S. alterniflora marsh, respectively, compared to that of NO treatment. The CH4 fluxes in the two marshes were positively correlated with temperature and pH, and nega- tively correlated with electrical conductivity and redox potential （Eh） at different N addition treatments. While the relationships between CH4 fluxes and environmental variables （especially soil temperature, pH and Eh at different depths） tended to decrease with N additions. Significant temporal variability in CH4 fluxes were observed as the N was gradually added to the native and invaded marshes. In order to better assess the global climatic role of tidal marshes as affected by N addition, much more attention should be paid to the short-term temporal variability in CH4 emission.

Pattern changes and early risk warning of Spartina alterniflora invasion:a study of mangrove-dominated wetlands in northeastern Fujian,China

The exotic saltmarsh cordgrass,Spartina alterniflora(Loisel)Peterson&Saarela,is one of the important causes for the extensive destruction of mangroves in China due to its invasive nature.The species has rapidly spread wildly across coastal wetlands,challenging resource managers for control of its further spread.An investigation of S.alterniflora invasion and associated ecological risk is urgent in China's coastal wetlands.In this study,an ecological risk invasive index system was developed based on the Driving Force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response framework.Predictions were made of'warning degrees':zero warning and light,moderate,strong,and extreme warning,by developing a back propagation(BP)artificial neural network model for coastal wetlands in eastern Fujian Province.Our results suggest that S.alterniflora mainly has invaded Kandelia candel beaches and farmlands with clustered distributions.An early warning indicator system assessed the ecological risk of the invasion and showed a ladder-like distribution from high to low extending from the urban area in the central inland region with changes spread to adjacent areas.Areas of light warning and extreme warning accounted for43%and 7%,respectively,suggesting the BP neural network model is reliable prediction of the ecological risk of S.alterniflora invasion.The model predicts that distribution pattern of this invasive species will change little in the next 10 years.However,the invaded patches will become relatively more concentrated without warning predicted.We suggest that human factors such as land use activities may partially determine changes in warning degree.Our results emphasize that an early warning system for S.alterniflora invasion in China's eastern coastal wetlands is significant,and comprehensive control measures are needed,particularly for K.candel beach.

Soil Organic Carbon Contents and Stocks in Coastal Salt Marshes with Spartina alterniflora Following an Invasion Chronosequence in the Yellow River Delta,China

Plant invasion alters the fundamental structure and function of native ecosystems by affecting the biogeochemical pools and fluxes of materials and energy. Native(Suaeda salsa) and invasive(Spartina alterniflora) salt marshes were selected to study the effects of Spartina alterniflora invasion on soil organic carbon(SOC) contents and stocks in the Yellow River Delta. Results showed that the SOC contents(g/kg) and stocks(kg/m^2) were significantly increased(P < 0.05) after Spartina alterniflora invasion of seven years, especially for the surface soil layer(0–20 cm). The SOC contents exhibited an even distribution along the soil profiles in native salt marshes, while the SOC contents were gradually decreased with depth after Spartina alterniflora invasion of seven years. The natural ln response ratios(Ln RR) were applied to identify the effects of short-term Spartina alterniflora invasion on the SOC stocks. We also found that Spartina alterniflora invasion might cause soil organic carbon losses in a short-term phase(2–4 years in this study) due to the negative Ln RR values, especially for 20–60 cm depth. And the SOCD in surface layer(0–20 cm) do not increase linearly with the invasive age. Spearman correlation analysis revealed that silt + clay content was exponentially related with SOC in surface layer(Adjusted R^2 = 0.43, P < 0.001), suggesting that soil texture could play a key role in SOC sequestration of coastal salt marshes.

Detecting and assessing Spartina invasion in coastal region of China： A case study in the Xiangshan Bay

Spartina alterniflora is one of exotic plants along the coastal region in China. It was introduced as an important engineering approach to ecological restoration in the later 1970 s. However, owing to its good adaptability and strong reproductive capacity, the introduced species is explosively spreading along the coastal region quickly and resulting in a significant impact on the health and safety of coastal wetland ecosystems. It is imperative to quantify the spatial extent and the rate of S. alterniflora sprawl in order to assess its ecological damages and economic impacts. Remote sensing techniques have been used to address these challenges but large unsuccessful due to mixed spectral properties. In this study, a hybrid method was proposed for S. alterniflora detection using medium resolution remote sensing images by integrating both spatial and spectral features of S. alterniflora. The hybrid method consists of two phases：（1） delineation of intertidal zone as the potential area of S. alterniflora distribution and（2） extraction of S. alterniflora fraction distribution with a mixture pixel analysis. The proposed method was tested at the Xiangshan Bay on the east coastal region of Zhejiang Province, China, and mapped the spatial extent of S. alterniflora with Landsat datasets in the 2003, 2009 and 2014. The results showed that, the S. alterniflora has grown exponentially over past 10 years. In 2003, the total area of S. alterniflora was about 590 hm2, but quickly reached to 1 745 hm2 in 2009, and 5 715 hm2 in 2014. With a rate of approximately 10-folds growth within a decade, the invasive species almost occupied all muddy beaches to become the most dominant coastal salt vegetation in this region. It is believed that the strong biological reproductive capacity was the primary reason for such quick spread and at the same time human reclamation activities were also believed to have facilitated the environmental conditions for S. alterniflora sprawl.

互花米草有利于我国海岸带蓝碳功能提升

Spartina alterniflora has rapidly and extensively encroached on China's coastline over the past decades.Among the coastal areas invaded by S.alterniflora,at most 93%are mudflats.However,the effect of S.alterniflora invasion on soil organic carbon(SOC)stocks of coastal mudflats has not been systematically studied on a national scale.Here,we quantified the nationwide changes in SOC stocks in coastal mudflats associated with S.alterniflora invasion between 1990 and 2020.We found that S.alterniflora invasion significantly enhanced SOC stocks in coastal China.Nonetheless,the benefit of S.alterniflora invasion of coastal SOC stock may be weakened by continuing human intervention.We found that S.alterniflora invading mudflats added 2.3 Tg SOC stocks to China's coastal blue carbon,while 1.78 Tg SOC stocks were lost mainly due to human activities,resulted in a net SOC stock gain of 0.52 Tg C.These findings overturned the traditionally thought that S.alterniflora invasion would reduce ecosystem services by highlighting that the historical invasion of S.alterniflora has broadly and consistently enhanced blue carbon stock in coastal China.