Abstract
We studied the levels of importance of water regime components for plant community composition, hygrophilous character and species diversity in semi-natural wet grasslands. We also investigated to what extent the water level in adjacent canals drives the water regime in grasslands in two marshes of the Marais poitevin region (Atlantic coast of France). The species composition of homogenous plant communities, hygrophilous character and diversity were described from frequency data. The water regime was characterized by flooding duration, soil aeration deficit and soil dryness, and soil conductivity measured in the sub-halophilous marsh.
Plant species composition and hygrophilous character were well predicted by the combined effects of all water regime components; flooding duration and dryness were most important, while soil water conductivity had a significant but limited impact. Diversity was poorly predicted by the environment, with a weak negative pattern related to flooding duration. The elevation contrasts within grasslands greatly contributed to species beta diversity.
Different water regime components act as complementary drivers of plant communities in wet grasslands and need to be monitored, among other local environmental conditions. The importance of dryness stress is underlined, despite the dryness tolerance of many wet grassland species in relation to natural alternating wet/dry periods. Water level management in canals was found insufficient on its own to restore or maintain long flooding conditions in grasslands, probably because of its limited relationship with water regime in wet grasslands.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
The datasets analysed during the current study are available in the DRYAD repository, link to be made available upon acceptance.
References
Acreman MC, Fisher J, Stratford CJ, Mould DJ, Mountford JO (2007) Hydrological science and wetland restoration: some case studies from Europe. Hydrol Earth Syst Sc 11:158–169. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-11-158-2007
Alexander C, Deák B, Heilmeier H (2016) Micro-topography driven vegetation patterns in open mosaic landscapes. Ecol Indic 60:906–920. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.08.030
Amiaud B, Bouzillé J-B, Tournade F, Bonis A (1998) Spatial patterns of soil salinities in old embanked marshlands in western France. Wetlands 18:482–494. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03161540
Araya YN, Silvertown J, Gowing DJ, McConway KJ, Linder HP, Midgley G (2011) A fundamental, eco-hydrological basis for niche segregation in plant communities. New Phytol 189:253–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03475.x
Armstrong A, Rose S (1999) Ditch water levels managed for environmental aims: effects on field soil water regimes. Hydrol Earth Syst Sc 3:385–394. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-3-385-1999
Arnold T (2010) Uninformative parameters and model selection using Akaike’s Information Criterion. J Wildl Manag 74:1175–1178. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1937-2817.2010.tb01236.x
Baastrup-Spohr L, Sand-Jensen K, Nicolajsen SV, Bruun HH (2015) From soaking wet to bone dry: predicting plant community composition along a steep hydrological gradient. J Veg Sci 26:619–630. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12280
Baattrup-Pedersen A, Jensen KMB, Thodsen H, Andersen HE, Andersen PM, Larsen SE, Riis T, Andersen DK, Audet J, Kronvang B (2013) Effects of stream flooding on the distribution and diversity of groundwater-dependent vegetation in riparian areas. Freshw Biol 58:817–827. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.12088
Banach K, Banach AM, Lamers LPM, De Kroon H, Bennicelli RP, Smits AJM, Visser EJW (2008) Differences in flooding tolerance between species from two wetland habitats with contrasting hydrology: implications for vegetation development in future floodwater retention areas. Ann Bot-london 103:341–351. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcn183
Barrett R, Nielsen DL, Croome R (2010) Associations between the plant communities of floodplain wetlands, water regime and wetland type. River Res Appl 26:866–876. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.1299
Bartoń K (2016) MuMIn: Multi-Model Inference. R package version 1.15.6
Bates D, Mächler M, Bolker B, Walker S (2015) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J Stat Softw 67:1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
Bengtsson J, Bullock JM, Egoh B, Everson C, Everson T, O’Connor T, O’Farrell PJ, Smith HG, Lindborg R (2019) Grasslands—more important for ecosystem services than you might think. Ecosphere 10:e02582. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2582
Benot M-L, Mony C, Merlin A, Marion B, Bouzillé J-B, Bonis A (2011) Clonal growth strategies along flooding and grazing gradients in Atlantic coastal meadows. Folia Geobot 46:219–235. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-010-9082-5
Blom CWPM (1999) Adaptations to flooding stress: from plant community to molecule. Plant Biol 1:261–273. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1438-8677.1999.tb00252.x
Bonis A, Bouzillé J-B, Amiaud B, Loucougaray G (2005) Plant community patterns in old embanked grasslands and the survival of halophytic flora. Flora 200:74–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.flora.2004.06.002
Bradford RB, Acreman MC (2003) Applying MODFLOW to wet grassland in-field habitats: a casestudy from the Pevensey Levels, UK. Hydrol Earth Syst Sc 7:43–55. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-7-43-2003
Brinson M (1993) A hydrogeomorphic classification for wetlands. US Army Corps of Engineers - Wetlands Research Program Technical Report WRP-DE-4
Brotherton SJ, Joyce CB (2015) Extreme climate events and wet grasslands: plant traits for ecological resilience. Hydrobiologia 750:229–243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-2129-5
Brotherton SJ, Joyce CB, Berg MJ, Awcock GJ (2019) Immediate and lag effects of hydrological change on floodplain grassland plants. Plant Ecol 220:345–359. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-019-00918-z
Bullock A, Acreman M (2003) The role of wetlands in the hydrological cycle. Hydrol Earth Syst Sc 7:358–389. https://doi.org/10.5194/HESS-7-358-2003
Burnham K, Anderson D (2002) Model selection and multimodel inference. A practical information-theoretic approach. Springer, New York, Berlin, Heidelberg
Colmer TD, Voesenek LACJ (2009) Flooding tolerance: suites of plant traits in variable environments. Funct Plant Biol 36:665–681. https://doi.org/10.1071/fp09144
Craine JM, Ocheltree TW, Nippert JB, Towne EG, Skibbe AM, Kembel SW, Fargione JE (2013) Global diversity of drought tolerance and grassland climate-change resilience. Nat Clim Change 3:63–67. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1634
Deat E, Cardot O (2019) Catalogue des habitats naturels du Marais Poitevin. PNR Marais Poitevin, EPMP, OPN Marais Poitevin
Dengler J, Janišová M, Török P, Wellstein C (2014) Biodiversity of Palaearctic grasslands: a synthesis. Agric Ecosyst Environ 182:1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2013.12.015
Dengler J, Biurrun I, Dembicz I, Török P (2020) Grasslands of the Palaearctic biogeographic realm: introduction and synthesis. In: Goldstein M, DellaSala D, DiPaolo D (eds) Encyclopedia of the world’s biomes. Volume 3: forests – trees of life. Grasslands and shrublands – sea of plants. Elsevier, Amsterdam, NL, pp 617–637
Dormann CF, Elith J, Bacher S, Buchmann C, Carl G, Carré G, Marquéz JRG, Gruber B, Lafourcade B, Leitão PJ, Münkemüller T, McClean C, Osborne PE, Reineking B, Schröder B, Skidmore AK, Zurell D, Lautenbach S (2013) Collinearity: a review of methods to deal with it and a simulation study evaluating their performance. Ecography 36:27–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07348.x
Dudoignon P, Caner L, Radimy R, Boissard C (2016) Caractérisation et évolution temporelle des structures des sols argileux à tourbeux des 11 sites témoins utilisés pour le suivi de la biodiversité du Marais Poitevin. Université de Poitiers - ENSI
Duncan P, Hewison A, Houte S, Rosoux R, Tournebize T, Dubs F, Burel F, Bretagnolle V (1999) Long-term changes in agricultural practices and wildfowling in an internationally important wetland, and their effects on the guild of wintering ducks. J Appl Ecol 36:11–23. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2664.1999.00363.x
Dwire K, Kauffman J, Baham J (2006) Plant species distribution in relation to water-table depth and soil redox potential in Montane riparian meadows. Wetlands 26:131–146. https://doi.org/10.1672/0277-5212(2006)26[131:PSDIRT]2.0.CO;2
EPMP (2015) Atlas du Marais poitevin. Etablissement Public du Marais poitevin, Lucon, France. http://www.epmp-marais-poitevin.fr/atlas-marais-poitevin/
Ervin GN, Herman BD, Bried JT, Holly DC (2006) Evaluating non-native species and wetland indicator status as components of wetlands floristic assessment. Wetlands 26:1114–1129. https://doi.org/10.1672/0277-5212(2006)26[1114:ENSAWI]2.0.CO;2
Evans D (2006) The habitats of the European Union Habitat Directive. Biology Environment: Proc Royal Ir Acad 106B:167–173. https://doi.org/
García-Baquero G, Silvertown J, Gowing DJ, Valle CJ (2016) Dissecting the hydrological niche: soil moisture, space and lifespan. J Veg Sci 27:219–226. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12353
García-Feced C, Weissteiner CJ, Baraldi A, Paracchini ML, Maes J, Zulian G, Kempen M, Elbersen B, Pérez-Soba M (2015) Semi-natural vegetation in agricultural land: European map and links to ecosystem service supply. Agron Sustain Dev 35:273–283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-014-0238-1
Gargominy O, Tercerie S, Régnier C, Ramage T, Dupont P, Daszkiewicz P, Poncet L (2018) TAXREF v12, référentiel taxonomique pour la France: méthodologie, mise en œuvre et diffusion. Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France. https://inpn.mnhn.fr/docs-web/docs/download/239729
Goodwillie C, McCoy MW, Peralta AL (2020) Long-term nutrient enrichment, mowing, and ditch drainage interact in the dynamics of a wetland plant community. Ecosphere 11:e03252. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3252
Gowing D, Gilbert J, Youngs E, Spoor G (1997) Water regime requirements of the native flora – with particular reference to ESAs. Final report to MAFF, London. Project BD0209
Guasconi D, Manzoni S, Hugelius G (2023) Climate-dependent responses of root and shoot biomass to drought duration and intensity in grasslands–a meta-analysis. Sci Tot Env 903:166209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166209
Gwin SE, Kentula ME, Shaffer PW (1999) Evaluating the effects of wetland regulation through hydrogeomorphic classification and landscape profiles. Wetlands 19:477–489. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03161687
Habel JC, Dengler J, Janišová M, Török P, Wellstein C, Wiezik M (2013) European grassland ecosystems: threatened hotspots of biodiversity. Biodivers Conserv 22:2131–2138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-013-0537-x
Hill MO, Mountford JO, Roy DB, Bunce RGH (1999). Ellenberg’s indicator values for British plants, Vol. 2: ECOFACT, Technical Annex. Institute for Terrestrial Ecology, Huntingdon, UK
Janssen J, Rodwell J, Criado MG, Gubbay S, Haynes T, Nieto A, Sanders N, Landucci F, Loidi J, Ssymank A, Tahvanainen T, Valderrabano M, Acosta A, Aronsson M, Arts G, Attorre F, Bergmeier E, Bijlsma R-J, Bioret F, Biţă-Nicolae C, Biurrun I, Calix M, Capelo J, Čarni A, Chytrý M, Dengler J, Dimopoulos P, Essl F, Gardfjell H, Gigante D, del Galdo GG, Hájek M, Jansen F, Jansen J, Kapfer J, Mickolajczak A, Molina J, Molnár Z, Paternoster D, Piernik A, Poulin B, Renaux B, Schaminée J, Šumberová K, Toivonen H, Tonteri T, Tsiripidis I, Tzonev R, Valachovič M (2016) European Red list of habitats. Part 2. Terrestrial and freshwater habitats. Publication Office of the European Union, Luxembourg
Jost L (2006) Entropy and diversity. Oikos 113:363–375. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2006.0030-1299.14714.x
Joyce CB (2014) Ecological consequences and restoration potential of abandoned wet grasslands. Ecol Eng 66:91–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.05.008
Julve P (2022) Baseflor. Index Botanique, écologique et chorologique de la flore de France. Version 13 01 23 Programme Catminat. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302925607_baseflor
Jung V, Hoffmann L, Müller S (2009) Ecophysiological responses of nine floodplain meadow species to changing hydrological conditions. Plant Ecol 201:589–598. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-008-9508-9
Lafage D, Maugenest S, Bouzillé J-B, Pétillon J (2015) Disentangling the influence of local and landscape factors on alpha and beta diversities: opposite response of plants and ground-dwelling arthropods in wet meadows. Ecol Res 30:1025–1035. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-015-1304-0
Large A, Mayes W, Newson M, Parkin G (2007) Using long-term monitoring of Fen hydrology and vegetation to underpin wetland restoration strategies. Appl Veg Sci 10:417–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-109X.2007.tb00441.x
Leyer I (2005) Predicting plant species’ responses to river regulation: the role of water level fluctuations. J Appl Ecol 42:239–250. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2005.01009.x
Loucougaray G, Bonis A, Bouzillé J-B (2004) Effects of grazing by horses and/or cattle on the diversity of coastal grasslands in western France. Biol Conserv 116:59–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(03)00177-0
Luo W, Song F, Xie Y (2008) Trade-off between tolerance to drought and tolerance to flooding in three wetland plants. Wetlands 866–873. https://doi.org/10.1672/07-225.1
Luo F-L, Huang L, Lei T, Xue W, Li H-L, Yu F-H, Cornelissen JHC (2016) Responsiveness of performance and morphological traits to experimental submergence predicts field distribution pattern of wetland plants. J Veg Sci 27:340–351. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12352
Maher C, Sheehy Skeffington M, Gormally M (2015) Hydroperiod and traditional farming practices drive plant community composition on unregulated atlantic floodplain meadows. Wetlands 35:263–279. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-014-0616-0
Marcon E, Hérault B (2015) Entropart: an R package to measure and partition diversity. J Stat Softw 67:1–26. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i08
Merlin A, Bonis A, Damgaard C, Mesléard F (2015) Competition is a strong driving factor in wetlands, peaking during drying out periods. PLoSONE 10:e0130152. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130152
Michalcová D, Gilbert JC, Lawson CS, Gowing DJG, Marrs RH (2011) The combined effect of waterlogging, extractable P and soil pH on α-diversity: a case study on mesotrophic grasslands in the UK. Plant Ecol 212:879–888. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9871-1
Minchin PR (1987) An evaluation of the relative robustness of techniques for ecological ordination. Vegetatio 69:89–107. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00038690
Nakagawa S, Johnson PCD, Schielzeth H (2017) The coefficient of determination R2 and intra-class correlation coefficient from generalized linear mixed-effects models revisited and expanded. J R Soc Interface 14:20170213. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2017.0213
Oksanen J, Blanchet FG, Friendly M, Kindt R, Legendre P, McGlinn D, Minchin PR, O’Hara RB, Simpson GL, Solymos P, Stevens MHH, Szoecs E, Wagner H (2017) vegan: Community Ecology Package. R package version 2.4-3
Rapinel S, Dusseux P, Bouzillé J-B, Bonis A, Lalanne A, Hubert-Moy L (2018) Structural and functional mapping of geosigmeta in Atlantic coastal marshes (France) using a satellite time series. Plant Biosyst 152:1101–1108. https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2017.1418447
Sarneel JM, Hefting MM, Visser EJW, Díaz-Sierra R, Voesenek LACJ, Kowalchuk GA (2022) Species traits interact with stress level to determine intraspecific facilitation and competition. J Veg Sci 33:e13145. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.13145
Schneider C, Flörke M, De Stefano L, Petersen-Perlman JD (2017) Hydrological threats to riparian wetlands of international importance -- a global quantitative and qualitative analysis. Hydrol Earth Syst Sc 21:2799–2815. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-2799-2017
Silvertown J, Dodd ME, Gowing DJG, Mountford JO (1999) Hydrologically defined niches reveal a basis for species richness in plant communities. Nature 400:61–63. https://doi.org/10.1038/21877
Silvertown J, Araya Y, Gowing D (2015) Hydrological niches in terrestrial plant communities: a review. J Ecol 103:93–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12332
Smit H, Metzger M, Ewert F (2008) Spatial distribution of grassland productivity and land use in Europe. Agr Syst 98:208–219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2008.07.004
Statements & declarations
Stein A, Gerstner K, Kreft H (2014) Environmental heterogeneity as a universal driver of species richness across taxa, biomes and spatial scales. Ecol Lett 17:866–880. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12277
Sueltenfuss JP, Ocheltree TW, Cooper DJ (2020) Evaluating the realized niche and plant-water relations of wetland species using experimental transplants. Plant Ecol 221:333–345. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-020-01015-2
Thompson J, Sørenson H, Gavin H, Refsgaard A (2004) Application of the coupled MIKE SHE/MIKE 11 modelling system to a lowland wet grassland in Southeast England. J Hydrol 293:151–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2004.01.017
Thompson JR, Gavin H, Refsgaard A, Refstrup Sørenson H, Gowing DJ (2009) Modelling the hydrological impacts of climate change on UK lowland wet grassland. Wetl Ecol Manag 17:503–523. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-008-9127-1
Toogood SE, Joyce CB (2009) Effects of raised water levels on wet grassland plant communities. Appl Veg Sci 12:283–229. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-109X.2009.01028.x
Toogood SE, Joyce CB, Waite S (2008) Response of floodplain grassland plant communities to altered water regimes. Plant Ecol 197:285–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-007-9378-6
Touchette BW, Iannacone LR, Turner GE, Frank AR (2007) Drought tolerance versus drought avoidance: a comparison of plant-water relations in herbaceous wetland plants subjected to water withdrawal and repletion. Wetlands 656–667. https://doi.org/10.1672/0277-5212(2007)27[656:DTVDAA]2.0.CO;2
Touchette BW, Iannacone LR, Turner G, Frank A (2010) Ecophysiological responses of five emergent-wetland plants to diminished water supply: an experimental microcosm study. Aquat Ecol 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-009-9246-7
Violle C, Bonis A, Plantegenest M, Cudennec C, Damgaard C, Marion B, Le Cœur D, Bouzillé J-B (2011) Plant functional traits capture species richness variations along a flooding gradient. Oikos 120:389–398. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2010.18525.x
Visser EJW, Voesenek LACJ, Vartapetian BB, Jackson MB (2003) Flooding and plant growth. Ann Bot-london 91:107–109. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcg014
Ward RD, Burnside NG, Joyce CB, Sepp K (2016) Importance of microtopography in determining plant community distribution in baltic coastal wetlands. J Coastal Res 32:1062–1070. https://doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-15-00065.1
Wassen MJ, Peeters WH, Olde Venterink H (2002) Patterns in vegetation, hydrology, and nutrient availability in an undisturbed river floodplain in Poland. Plant Ecol 165:27–43. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021493327180
Watson E, Wigand C, Cencer M, Blount K (2015) Inundation and precipitation effects on growth and flowering of the high marsh species Juncus gerardii. Aquat Bot 121:52–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquabot.2014.10.012
Webb JA, Wallis EM, Stewardson MJ (2012) A systematic review of published evidence linking wetland plants to water regime components. Aquat Bot 103:1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquabot.2012.06.003
Zhang D, Tong S, Qi Q, Zhang M, An Y, Wang X, Lu X (2019) Effects of drought and re-flooding on growth and photosynthesis of Carex Schmidtii Meinsh: implication for tussock restoration. Ecol Indic 103:134–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.04.005
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the three anonymous referees for their valuable comments, which helped to improve our manuscript, as well as the Editor-in-Chief who handled the submitted paper. We wish to thank the staff of the Etablissement Public du Marais poitevin for their support, as well as the Parc Naturel Régional du Marais poitevin and contributors of the Observatoire du Patrimoine Naturel du Marais poitevin for fruitful discussions on preliminary results. We are indebted to Ouest Am’ for conducting vegetation monitoring. Lastly, we are grateful to all the local water management committees, the land owners and users, J.-L. Beneteau, F. Bodin, G. Bourget, P. Charré, C. Dubois, W. Dubois, T. Faivre, E. Huvelin, S. Izambar, T. Martins, B. Naulet, C. Veillet, the municipalities of Nalliers, Les Velluires sur Vendée, Nuaillé d’Aunis and Le Gué d’Alleré, as well as the CEN Nouvelle Aquitaine and the Conservatoire du Littoral, who allowed us to deploy the monitoring devices and sample plants in grasslands. English language was edited by Annie Buchwalter.
Funding
This research was funded by the Établissement Public du Marais poitevin and the Agence de l’Eau Loire-Bretagne, as part of the program “Suivi de la biodiversité en lien avec la gestion de l’eau”, within the framework of the “CTMA cadre 2020–2025”.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
AB and JMP conceived the study and designed the sampling strategy. OG conducted the environmental monitoring in the field and managed the databases. BB, JMP, AM and JC designed data analysis and AM ran them. AM and AB co-wrote the first draft of the paper, and all authors contributed critically to the different drafts and gave their final approval for publication.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing Interests
The authors declare they have no financial interests and overall, no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic Supplementary Material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Mauchamp, A., Bonis, A., Crabot, J. et al. Interplay between Water Regime Components and Wet Grassland Plant Communities. Wetlands 44, 50 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-024-01803-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-024-01803-w