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Trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services in UK and US salt marshes / KATE DAVIDSON

Swansea University Author: KATE DAVIDSON

DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.56850

Abstract

Salt marshes supply vital ecosystem services (ES), providing material goods and recreation space, regulating natural hazards, and supporting diverse wildlife. However, increases in the utilisation of one ES can lead to reductions or ‘trade-offs’ in others. Because salt marshes are commonly used for...

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Published: Swansea 2019
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Griffin, John N. ; Fowler, Mike S.
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56850
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spelling 2021-05-12T11:02:07.4977501 v2 56850 2021-05-12 Trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services in UK and US salt marshes f382f4045afe626492fe3c0e4766c41b KATE DAVIDSON KATE DAVIDSON true false 2021-05-12 Salt marshes supply vital ecosystem services (ES), providing material goods and recreation space, regulating natural hazards, and supporting diverse wildlife. However, increases in the utilisation of one ES can lead to reductions or ‘trade-offs’ in others. Because salt marshes are commonly used for grazing livestock, it is important to understand how this grazing impacts the saltmarsh ecosystem, and the consequences for ES supply. This thesis (i) uses a global meta-analysis to investigate the effects of livestock grazing on saltmarsh properties, and finds multiple significant changes to soil, vegetation and fauna properties. The meta-analysis reveals that the response of soil carbon is context dependent – there is no effect in Europe but a reduction in the Americas. (ii) Extensive surveys of soil carbon in grazed and ungrazed US marshes, controlling for key covariates, confirm that grazing trades-off against carbon storage in US marshes. These observational surveys, together with 18-month experimental exclusion of horses from a salt marsh in Georgia, show that grazing also disrupts the plant community in US marshes, but has little effect on resident invertebrates. (iii) Focussing on bees in salt marshes, a three-year study in south Wales, UK shows that grazing trades-off against bee habitat by reducing the flower cover of two key food plants, and that increases in plant diversity with grazing do not compensate for this negative effect. (iv) Spatial analyses of seven saltmarsh ES supplied by an estuary complex in south Wales show that marshes are not achieving their potential as a bee habitat here, due to the predominance of grazing. These analyses also show that the provision of ES by salt marshes is spatially heterogeneous, dependent on management, size and location. As a whole, this thesis adds to the understanding of grazer impacts and ES trade-offs, and supplies crucial data to support evidence-based management of salt marshes. E-Thesis Swansea Ecosystem services, salt marsh, grazing, livestock 13 9 2019 2019-09-13 10.23889/SUthesis.56850 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Griffin, John N. ; Fowler, Mike S. Doctoral Ph.D Swansea University 2021-05-12T11:02:07.4977501 2021-05-12T09:26:53.1183188 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences KATE DAVIDSON 1 56850__19855__293f4a796f274f38b45e1a3b0c8aee31.pdf Davidson_Kate_PhD_Redacted_Signature.pdf 2021-05-12T10:37:03.8178556 Output 10453566 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true Copyright: The author, Kate Davidson, 2019. true eng
title Trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services in UK and US salt marshes
spellingShingle Trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services in UK and US salt marshes
KATE DAVIDSON
title_short Trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services in UK and US salt marshes
title_full Trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services in UK and US salt marshes
title_fullStr Trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services in UK and US salt marshes
title_full_unstemmed Trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services in UK and US salt marshes
title_sort Trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services in UK and US salt marshes
author_id_str_mv f382f4045afe626492fe3c0e4766c41b
author_id_fullname_str_mv f382f4045afe626492fe3c0e4766c41b_***_KATE DAVIDSON
author KATE DAVIDSON
author2 KATE DAVIDSON
format E-Thesis
publishDate 2019
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/SUthesis.56850
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Salt marshes supply vital ecosystem services (ES), providing material goods and recreation space, regulating natural hazards, and supporting diverse wildlife. However, increases in the utilisation of one ES can lead to reductions or ‘trade-offs’ in others. Because salt marshes are commonly used for grazing livestock, it is important to understand how this grazing impacts the saltmarsh ecosystem, and the consequences for ES supply. This thesis (i) uses a global meta-analysis to investigate the effects of livestock grazing on saltmarsh properties, and finds multiple significant changes to soil, vegetation and fauna properties. The meta-analysis reveals that the response of soil carbon is context dependent – there is no effect in Europe but a reduction in the Americas. (ii) Extensive surveys of soil carbon in grazed and ungrazed US marshes, controlling for key covariates, confirm that grazing trades-off against carbon storage in US marshes. These observational surveys, together with 18-month experimental exclusion of horses from a salt marsh in Georgia, show that grazing also disrupts the plant community in US marshes, but has little effect on resident invertebrates. (iii) Focussing on bees in salt marshes, a three-year study in south Wales, UK shows that grazing trades-off against bee habitat by reducing the flower cover of two key food plants, and that increases in plant diversity with grazing do not compensate for this negative effect. (iv) Spatial analyses of seven saltmarsh ES supplied by an estuary complex in south Wales show that marshes are not achieving their potential as a bee habitat here, due to the predominance of grazing. These analyses also show that the provision of ES by salt marshes is spatially heterogeneous, dependent on management, size and location. As a whole, this thesis adds to the understanding of grazer impacts and ES trade-offs, and supplies crucial data to support evidence-based management of salt marshes.
published_date 2019-09-13T04:12:07Z
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score 11.013686