Top-down vs. bottom-up control on vegetation composition in a tidal marsh depends on scale

The relative impact of top-down control by herbivores and bottom-up control by environmental conditions on vegetation is a subject of debate in ecology. In this study, we hypothesize that top-down control by goose foraging and bottom-up control by sediment accretion on vegetation composition within...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLOS ONE
Main Authors: Elschot, Kelly, Vermeulen, Anke, Vandenbruwaene, Wouter, Bakker, Jan P., Bouma, Tjeerd, Stahl, Julia, Castelijns, Henk, Temmerman, Stijn
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2017
Subjects:
SEA-LEVEL RISE
GRASSLAND PLANT DIVERSITY
EUROPEAN SALT-MARSH
GEESE ANSER ANSER
LONG-TERM CHANGES
HUDSON-BAY
WADDEN SEA
COMMUNITY STRUCTURE
SPECIES RICHNESS
RESOURCE CONTROL
Hudson
Hudson Bay
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11370/543e27f1-cbd8-47ae-8db6-523039000966
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/543e27f1-cbd8-47ae-8db6-523039000966
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169960
https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/50055289/Top_down_vs._bottom_up_control_on_vegetation.pdf
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Summary:The relative impact of top-down control by herbivores and bottom-up control by environmental conditions on vegetation is a subject of debate in ecology. In this study, we hypothesize that top-down control by goose foraging and bottom-up control by sediment accretion on vegetation composition within an ecosystem can co-occur but operate at different spatial and temporal scales. We used a highly dynamic marsh system with a large population of the Greylag goose (Anser anser) to investigate the potential importance of spatial and temporal scales on these processes. At the local scale, Greylag geese grub for below-ground storage organs of the vegetation, thereby creating bare patches of a few square metres within the marsh vegetation. In our study, such activities by Greylag geese allowed them to exert top-down control by setting back vegetation succession. However, we found that the patches reverted back to the initial vegetation type within 12 years. At large spatial (i.e. several square kilometres) and temporal scales (i.e. decades), high rates of sediment accretion surpassing the rate of local sea-level rise were found to drive long-term vegetation succession and increased cover of several climax vegetation types. In summary, we conclude that the vegetation composition within this tidal marsh was primarily controlled by the bottom-up factor of sediment accretion, which operates at large spatial as well as temporal scales. Top-down control exerted by herbivores was found to be a secondary process and operated at much smaller spatial and temporal scales.

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