Keshta, Amr, Koop-Jakobsen, Ketil, Titschack, Jürgen, Mueller, Peter, Jensen, Kai, Baldwin, Andrew and Nolte, Stefanie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8570-241X
(2020)
Ungrazed salt marsh has well connected soil pores and less dense sediment compared with grazed salt marsh: a CT scanning study.
Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 245.
ISSN 0272-7714
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Abstract
Salt marshes provide various ecosystem functions and services including flooding protection, wildlife habitats, and carbon storage. These functions and services could, however, be strongly impacted by anthropogenic activities such as livestock grazing – a common practice in the Wadden Sea salt marshes located in North west of Europe. To assess the impact of grazing on soil parameters, a total number of eight soil cores (⌀: 18 cm; L: 50 cm) were collected in areas with and without livestock grazing, and scanned using a Computed Tomography (CT) to characterize soil parameters including soil macroporosity, sediment density, and pores connectivity. Subsequently, sub-samples were taken for determination of soil moisture content (%) and bulk density (g cm −3). To account for the impact of grazing on soil drainage after tidal inundations, water table relative to soil surface was monitored during two flooding events. Our results demonstrated that grazed salt marsh has higher top-soil bulk density, and lower macroporosity and pore connectivity, than ungrazed marsh, due to soil compaction by livestock grazing. Moreover, grazed marsh has slower water drainage and that might keep the soil waterlogged for a longer period of time which has implications on lowering decomposition rate due to lower soil redox. This study provides evidence that grazing alters physical soil parameters in salt marsh. Consequently, grazing needs to be accounted for when evaluating how land use impacts ecosystem services and functions including carbon sequestration.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | computed tomography,land-use managment,livestock,soil ecosystem services,soil macroporosity,wadden sea,oceanography,aquatic science,sdg 15 - life on land ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1910 |
Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences |
UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas |
Related URLs: | |
Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
Date Deposited: | 02 Sep 2020 23:54 |
Last Modified: | 22 Oct 2022 06:46 |
URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/76737 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.ecss.2020.106987 |
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