Tuesday, June 5, 2007
406

Sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense Crantz.) Growth Responses to Mineral And Nutrient Enrichment In A Northern Everglades Peatland, The Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

Eric Crawford, Leetown Science Center, US Geological Survey, 11649 Leetown Rd., Kearneysville, WV 25430 and Paul McCormick, Leetown Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 11649 Leetown Rd., Kearneysville, WV 25430.

The interior of the A.R.M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge retains a soft-water (i.e., mineral-poor) chemistry that likely prevailed across larger areas of the predrainage Everglades.  Discharges of canal drainage waters into the Refuge have increased soil mineral and phosphorus (P) levels near the wetland perimeter and are associated with increased cover of the emergent macrophyte sawgrass and a corresponding reduction in the extent of slough-wet prairie (SWP) habitats.  Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine sawgrass growth responses to mineral and P enrichment.  Seedlings potted in sawgrass soil from an interior location grew 4 times faster than those in SWP soil from the same site.  This difference corresponded with naturally higher P concentrations in sawgrass soils.  Seedlings in both soils grew twice as fast when soils were enriched with major mineral elements.  Growth in soil from a perimeter SWP location, which was enriched with minerals and P from canal waters, was significantly faster than that in interior slough soil and similar to that in sawgrass soil.  These results indicate that both mineral and P enrichment promote sawgrass growth in Refuge SWP habitats.  Ongoing experiments will better define these relationships and their implications for habitat patterns in the Refuge.

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