Plant and Macroinvertebrate Responses to Water Regime in a Whitetop Marsh
Author: Hilary Alison Neckles
Publisher:
Published: 1984
Total Pages: 109
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis study examined the role of water regime in the ecology of seasonally flooded prairie wetlands, and the potential for using water level manipulation as a seasonal marsh management tool. Specific objectives were 1) to determine the effects of water regime on decomposition of whitetop (Scolochloa festucacea), a dominant emergent grass of seasonal prairie wetlands, 2) to determine the influence of water regime on macroinvertebrate abundance in seasonal marshes, and 3)to compare whitetop forage yield under dry and seasonally flooded conditions. Distinct water regimes (permanent drought, permanent flooding, or seasonal flooding) were applied to 3 contiguous impoundments on the Delta Marsh, Manitoba, from April 1981 through July 1983. Responses within the litter, aquatic macroinvertebrate, and aboveground macrophyte components to each treatment were measured.Prolonged flooding hastened weight loss from whitetop litter.Differences in weight loss patterns were related to the length of.