The effects of restoration treatments and flooding regime on plant community composition in restored geographically isolated wetlands
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Date
2015-08-10
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Towson University. Environmental Science and Studies Program
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Copyright protected, all rights reserved.
There are no restrictions on access to this document. An internet release form signed by the author to display this document online is on file with Towson University Special Collections and Archives.
There are no restrictions on access to this document. An internet release form signed by the author to display this document online is on file with Towson University Special Collections and Archives.
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Abstract
Wetland plant community diversity is an important structural quality to assess in wetland creation or restoration projects because it is typically used as a proxy for other functional processes that are more difficult to measure. To determine the drivers of plant community diversity, eight wetlands within Jackson Lane, a large scale, fragmented wetland mitigation project, were sampled for species richness and fourteen additional environmental variables almost a decade after mitigation. Results show that size, straw type, and soil chemistry and texture are influential variables on plant species diversity. In addition, differences in average percent vegetative cover, average percent litter cover, coarse woody debris (CWD), and soil chemistry and texture are related to differences in wetland plant community composition. Coarse woody debris application and applications of straw are restoration practices that should be used in any depression wetland mitigation in order to increase plant diversity.