Mangrove forests dominate the world's tropical and subtropical coastlines. Similar to other plant communities, nutrient availability is one of the major factors influencing mangrove forest structure and productivity. Many mangrove soils have extremely low nutrient availability, although nutrient availability can vary greatly among and within mangrove forests. Nutrient-conserving processes in mangroves are well developed and include evergreeness, resorption of nutrients prior to leaf fall, the immobilization of nutrients in leaf litter during decomposition, high root/shoot ratios and the repeated use of old root channels. Both nitrogen-use efficiency and nutrient resorption efficiencies in mangroves are amongst the highest recorded for angiosperms. A complex range of interacting abiotic and biotic factors controls the availability of nutrients to mangrove trees, and mangroves are characteristically plastic in their ability to opportunistically utilize nutrients when these become available. Nitrogen and phosphorus have been implicated as the nutrients most likely to limit growth in mangroves. Ammonium is the primary form of nitrogen in mangrove soils, in part as a result of anoxic soil conditions, and tree growth is supported mainly by ammonium uptake. Nutrient enrichment is a major threat to marine ecosystems. Although mangroves have been proposed to protect the marine environment from land-derived nutrient pollution, nutrient enrichment can have negative consequences for mangrove forests and their capacity for retention of nutrients may be limited.

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Nutrition of mangroves

Plants in nutrient poor environments are often characterized by high nutrient resorption resulting in poor litter quality and, consequently, slow decomposition. We used oligotrophic, P-limited herbaceous wetlands of northern Belize as a model system, on which to document and explain how changes in nutrient content along a salinity gradient affect decomposition rates of macrophytes. In 2001 we established a nutrient addition experiment (P, N, and N&P) in 15 marshes of a wide range of water conductivities (200–6000 μS), dominated by Eleocharis spp. To determine what is more important for decomposition, the initial litter quality, or site differences, we used reciprocal litter placement and cellulose decomposition assay in a combined “site quality” and “litter quality” experiment. Our prediction of the positive effects of P-enrichment on decomposition rate due to both the quality of litter and the site was confirmed. The site effect was stronger than the litter quality although both were highly significant. Strong site quality effect was apparently the result of more active decomposer community in P-enriched plots as supported by finding of higher microbial biomass in litter decomposing there. The strong effect of site quality on decomposition was further confirmed by the cellulose assay. The cellulose decomposition was significantly slower at high salinity sites indicating lower decomposer microbial activity. Litter nutrient N and P content and nutrient ratios were well correlated with decomposition with the best fit found for log C/P. At C/P mass ratio of >4000 decomposition processes were extremely slow. We hypothesize that in a long run, the increased decomposition will compensate the increase in primary production resulting from increased nutrient loading and there will be no differences in accumulation of organic material between the controls and nutrient enriched plots.

Wetland plant decomposition under different nutrient conditions: what is more important, litter quality or site quality?

We conducted a series of experiments whereby dissolved organic matter (DOM) was leached from various wetland and estuarine plants, namely sawgrass (Cladium  jamaicense), spikerush (Eleocharis  cellulosa), red mangrove (Rhizophora  mangle), cattail (Typha  domingensis), periphyton (dry and wet mat), and a seagrass (turtle grass; Thalassia  testudinum). All are abundant in the Florida Coastal Everglades (FCE) except for cattail, but this species has a potential to proliferate in this environment. Senescent plant samples were immersed into ultrapure water with and without addition of 0.1% NaN3 (w/ and w/o NaN3, respectively) for 36 days. We replaced the water every 3 days. The amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), sugars, and phenols in the leachates were analyzed. The contribution of plant leachates to the ultrafiltered high molecular weight fraction of DOM (>1 kDa; UDOM) in natural waters in the FCE was also investigated. UDOM in plant leachates was obtained by tangential flow ultrafiltration and its carbon and phenolic compound compositions were analyzed using solid state 13C cross-polarization magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (13C CPMAS NMR) spectroscopy and thermochemolysis in the presence of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH thermochemolysis), respectively. The maximum yield of DOC leached from plants over the 36-day incubations ranged from 13.0 to 55.2 g C kg−1 dry weight. This amount was lower in w/o NaN3 treatments (more DOC was consumed by microbes than produced) except for periphyton. During the first 2 weeks of the 5 week incubation period, 60–85% of the total amount of DOC was leached, and exponential decay models fit the leaching rates except for periphyton w/o NaN3. Leached DOC (w/ NaN3) contained different concentrations of sugars and phenols depending on the plant types (1.09–7.22 and 0.38–12.4 g C kg−1 dry weight, respectively), and those biomolecules comprised 8–34% and 4–28% of the total DOC, respectively. This result shows that polyphenols that readily leach from senescent plants can be an important source of chromophoric DOM (CDOM) in wetland environments. The O-alkyl C was found to be the major C form (55±9%) of UDOM in plant leachates as determined by 13C CPMAS NMR. The relative abundance of alkyl C and carbonyl C was consistently lower in plant-leached UDOM than that in natural water UDOM in the FCE, which suggests that these constituents increase in relative abundance during diagenetic processing. TMAH thermochemolysis analysis revealed that the phenolic composition was different among the UDOM leached from different plants, and was expected to serve as a source indicator of UDOM in natural water. Polyphenols are, however, very reactive and photosensitive in aquatic environments, and thus may loose their plant-specific molecular characteristics shortly. Our study suggests that variations in vegetative cover across a wetland landscape will affect the quantity and quality of DOM leached into the water, and such differences in DOM characteristics may affect other biogeochemical processes.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/20519809

Quantitative and qualitative aspects of dissolved organic carbon leached from senescent plants in an oligotrophic wetland

Surface sediments and three sediment vibrocores were collected from the salt marsh of the Yangtze Estuary in order to examine the C, N, P and S distributions. Marsh plants and suspended particulate matter (SPM) from the river were also sampled and analyzed in order to determine their elemental compositions. The levels of total organic carbon (0.1–0.7%) and C/N ratios (6–11) in the surface sediments of the Yangtze Estuary salt marsh were relatively low compared with those reported for other salt marshes in European and North American coastal areas. The total organic carbon (TOC) level and C/N ratio of the surface sediments were similar to those of the SPM in the Yangtze Estuary, but were much lower than those of the marsh plant samples. These findings support the view that organic matter in the surface sediments is largely derived from SPM in the river, with minor contributions from the marsh vegetation. Total phosphorus (TP) showed irregular variation in its spatial distribution, whereas the TOC, total nitrogen (TN) and total sulfur (TS) concentrations were highest in the high marsh zones and lowest in the bare flat areas. This pattern was related to the spatial variability of the sediment grain size (i.e. clay-rich sediments in the high marsh zones resulted in elevated TOC, TN and TS contents). Some vibrocore sediments in the mid-depths of the high and low marsh zones, however, showed greater TOC contents than might have been predicted from the TOC-grain size relationship. This suggested the existence of additional organic inputs (i.e. marsh vegetation) for these vibrocore sediment sections, despite their original riverine source. After eliminating the effect of grain size, it was calculated that 22–55% of the TOC and 0.6–35% of the TN in the sediment samples were derived from the marsh vegetation. Considering both the vertical accretion rate and the ecosystem evolution of the salt marsh, it was estimated that the annual contributions of TOC and TN made by the marsh vegetation to the sediments in the Yangtze Estuary were 5.8 × 1011 g C yr−1 and 2.3 × 1010 g N yr−1, respectively, with corresponding accumulation rates of 1.1–1.5 × 1010 g C yr−1 and 4.4–5.8 × 108 g N yr−1 at the present time.

Spatial variations of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulfur in the salt marsh sediments of the Yangtze Estuary in China

The decomposition of the mangrove Rhizophora mangle and the seagrass Thalassia testudinum was examined using litterbags along a natural gradient in nutrient availability. Seagrass leaves had a higher fraction of their biomass in the labile pool (57%), compared to mangrove leaves (36%) and seagrass rhizomes (29%); the overall decomposition rates of the starting material reflected the fractionation into labile and refractory components. There was no relationship between the N or P content of the starting material and the decomposition rate. Nutrient availability had no influence on decomposition rate, and mass was lost at the same rate from litterbags that were buried in the sediment and litterbags that were left on the sediment surface. The dynamics of N and P content during decomposition varied as a function of starting material and burial state. N content of decomposing mangrove leaves increased, but seagrass rhizomes decreased in N content during decomposition while there was no change in seagrass leaf ...

Changes in nutrient content and stable isotope ratios of C and N during decomposition of seagrasses and mangrove leaves along a nutrient availability gradient in Florida Bay, USA

https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1059&context=fce_lter_journal_articles

Temporally dependent C, N, and P dynamics associated with the decay of Rhizophora mangle L. leaf litter in oligotrophic mangrove wetlands of the Southern Everglades

Carlos Corronado-Molina

Papers

Temporally dependent C, N, and P dynamics associated with the decay of Rhizophora mangle L. leaf litter in oligotrophic mangrove wetlands of the Southern Everglades

Temporally dependent C, N, and P dynamics associated with the decay of Rhizophora mangle L. leaf litt er in oligotrophic mangrove wetlands of the