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Potential Impacts of Sediment Deposition on Nutrient Variation in Typical Decaying Litters (Cyperus malaccensis) in Coastal Marsh of the Min River Estuary, Southeast China

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Abstract

Although sediment deposition is an important process in coastal marshes, insufficient information is available about its influence on litter decomposition and nutrient cycle. In order to investigate the potential impacts of sediment deposition on nutrient (carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S)) variations in typical detritus (Cyperus malaccensis) in coastal marsh of the Min River estuary (Southeast China), the field decomposition experiment was conducted during 2016 ~ 2017 which included three one-off deposition treatments: no sediment deposition (0 cm yr−1, NSD), current sediment deposition (5 cm yr−1, CSD) and strong sediment deposition (10 cm yr−1, SSD). Results indicated that sediment deposition showed significant effect on litter decomposition rate, following the order of NSD (0.00735 d−1) > CSD (0.00508 d−1) > SSD (0.00378 d−1) (p < 0.05). The total carbon (TC) contents in decaying litters in the CSD and SSD treatments were significantly higher than those in the NSD treatment (p < 0.05). The contents of total nitrogen (TN) and total sulfur (TS) in decomposing detritus in the three deposition treatments generally showed an increasing trend during 0 ~ 276 days, while those of total phosphorus (TP) showed increasing tendency after decomposing for 30 days. With increasing deposition depths, the contents of TC, TN, TP or TS in decaying litters generally increased. The differences in decomposition rates and nutrient contents among the three deposition treatments primarily rested with the alterations of substrate quality in decaying detritus during the whole decomposition. Stocks of C, N, P and S in decomposing litters in the three deposition treatments evidenced the export from detritus to the surroundings and, with increasing deposition depths, the nutrient released from detritus decreased greatly. This paper found that strong sediment deposition reduced the nutrient return (particularly for S) from detritus, which, in turn, might greatly alter the nutrient cycle in C. malaccensis marsh.

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Data Availability

All data produced from this study are provided in this manuscript.

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Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41971128; 42371105), the Key Program of Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (No. 2023J02012), the Science & Technology Specific Projects in Agricultural High-tech Industrial Demonstration Area of the Yellow River Delta (No. 2022SZX44) and the Key Foundation of Science and Technology Department of Fujian Province (No. 2016R1032-1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for Subtropical Resources and Environment, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, People’s Republic of China

    Zhigao Sun, Jie Wang, Bingbing Chen, Xingyun Hu & Xinhua Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Humid Subtropical Eco-geographical Process (Fujian Normal University), Ministry of Education, Fuzhou, 350007, People’s Republic of China

    Zhigao Sun, Jie Wang, Bingbing Chen & Xingyun Hu

  3. Institute of Geography, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, People’s Republic of China

    Zhigao Sun

  4. College of Tourism, Resources and Environment, Zaozhuang University, Zaozhuang, 277000, People’s Republic of China

    Bingbing Chen

  5. Yellow River Delta Modern Agriculture Research Center, Dongying, 257000, People’s Republic of China

    Xinhua Li

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  1. Zhigao Sun
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  3. Bingbing Chen
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Contributions

Prof. Zhigao Sun provided the ideas, designed the experiment and wrote this paper; Jie Wang participated in the whole processes of the experiment including sample collections and sample chemical determinations; Bingbing Chen, Xingyun Hu and Xinhua Li did the experiment and processed the experimental data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhigao Sun.

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Sun, Z., Wang, J., Chen, B. et al. Potential Impacts of Sediment Deposition on Nutrient Variation in Typical Decaying Litters (Cyperus malaccensis) in Coastal Marsh of the Min River Estuary, Southeast China. Wetlands 43, 102 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-023-01749-5

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