Coastal freshwater wetland plant community response to seasonal drought and flooding in Northwestern Costa Rica
Abstract
Wetlands in tropical wet-dry climates are governed by distinct and extreme seasonal
hydrologic fluctuations. In this study, we investigated the plant community response
to seasonal flooding and drought in Palo Verde Marsh, Costa Rica. Climate change models
for the region predict reduced rainfall and a drier wet season which would likely
alter seasonal hydrologic cycles and prompt vegetation change.We quantified compositional
change following disturbance emphasizing seasonal differences in plant life-form abundance
across life history stages via standing vegetation, seed bank, and seedling recruitment
measurements. Whereas the dry season standing vegetation was dominated by emergent
species, aquatic species (floating-rooted, free-floating, and submerged life forms)
were more dominant during the wet season. Seed bank and seedling recruitment measurements
indicated that many species are resilient with life history traits that enable them
to respond rapidly to extreme hydrologic filters. Interestingly, species richness
was highest during seasonal flooding. Our results highlight the importance of early-wet
season rainfall for plant regeneration and community change. Our findings also indicate
that a drier future would likely have a large impact upon wetland plant communities
with a decrease in species richness and an increase in the abundance of drought-tolerant
emergent species. © Society of Wetland Scientists 2011.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15722Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1007/s13157-011-0180-9Publication Info
Osland, MJ; González, E; & Richardson, CJ (2011). Coastal freshwater wetland plant community response to seasonal drought and flooding
in Northwestern Costa Rica. Wetlands, 31(4). pp. 641-652. 10.1007/s13157-011-0180-9. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15722.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Curtis J. Richardson
Research Professor of Resource Ecology in the Division of Environmental Science and
Policy
Curtis J. Richardson is Professor of Resource Ecology and founding Director of the
Duke University Wetland Center in the Nicholas School of the Environment. Dr. Richardson
earned his degrees from the State University of New York and the University of Tennessee.
His research interests in applied ecology focus on long-term ecosystem response to
large-scale perturbations such as climate change, toxic materials, trace metals, flooding,
or nutrient additions. He has specific interests in phosphor

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