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The Effects of the Proximity of the Marine Environment
on Biodiversity in Microhabitats within a Salt Marsh
by Waterose
Section 4. Discussion:
4.1 Discussion:
The study compared the biodiversity of the flora species in three microhabitats by comparing the number of species in the study area. The null hypothesis proposed that there was no difference in biodiversity as proximity to the salt water lagoon increased. The null hypothesis is rejected because there is a significant difference in the mean number of species between the three microhabitats as illustrated in the Anova analysis. Furthermore, there is a significant difference in the mean number of species between the marine water edge habitat and the fresh water edge habitat, and the marine water edge habitat and the mixed water edge habitat as illustrated in the T-test analysis. However, there is not a significant difference in the mean number of species between the fresh water edge habitat and the mixed water edge habitat as illustrated in the T-test analysis.There is an overall trend in the spatial distribution of the number of different species within the microhabitats in the saltmarsh. The biodiversity increases as the proximity from the salt water lagoon increases. The variation between the sampling subquadrats also increases in the fresh water microhabitat as illustrated by the larger standard deviation from the mean number of different species. The number of species identified in each microhabitat were: five in the marine area, ten in the mixed area and twelve in the fresh water area. There were three species that were dually adapted to the fresh and marine microhabitats, and three species that were dually adapted to the fresh and mixed microhabitats. There was only one species, Silverweed, that was adapted to all three microhabitats. This indicates that there is a distinct biodiversity partitioning in the salt marsh ecosystem between different flora species. Silverweed would be a unique species for further study because it has a competitive advantage over other species with the ability to occupy three types of niches and the potential to displace other species.
An alternate method of analysis would be to compare both the number of species and the relative abundance of the species to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of ecosystem structure and partitioning. A further enhancement would be to include soil microfauna diversity in the analysis. Furthermore, the effects of the abiotic factors such as slope, aspect, moisture content, pH, salinity, should be factored in for each sampled subquadrat.
One of the limitations of the study was that the data for these other factors was not available at the scale of the sampling subquadrats within the three microhabitats. Other limitations include the subjective nature of species identification by different field participants. The species data obtained for the marine edge was less detailed than the data obtained for the fresh or mixed water microhabitats. Furthermore, the marine edge contained large amounts of dead grass which was not identified to the species level.
4.2 Conclusion:
The analysis of the microhabitats indicated that biodiversity partitioning occurs within the saltmarsh ecosystem. This analysis provided a preliminary enumeration of the biodiversity of the three microhabitats within the saltmarsh ecosystem and compliments the Madrone Report. The Madrone Report provided a comprehensive enumeration of the biodiversity of the macrohabitats in this ecosystem zone. The long term monitoring of biodiversity and abundance of species under the EMAN plan is part of our commitment to understanding and preserving biodiversity.
To Section 5. References:
Index:
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