Influences of N-Fixing and Non-N-Fixing Vegetation and Invasive Fish on Water Chemistry of Hawaiian Anchialine Ponds

Autor: Richard A. MacKenzie, H. Dulaiova, B. D. Dudley, C. A. Waters, Rebecca Ostertag, R. F. Hughes, T. S. Sakihara
Rok vydání: 2014
Předmět:
Zdroj: Pacific Science. 68:509-523
ISSN: 1534-6188
0030-8870
DOI: 10.2984/68.4.5
Popis: In coastal waters, it remains unclear how terrestrial invasive species might alter nutrient availability and thus affect bottom-up control of primary production. Anchialine ponds are tidal- and groundwater-fed coastal water bodies without surface connections that provide convenient model systems in which to examine terrestrial to aquatic nutrient flow. To investigate how N-fixing and non-N-fixing terrestrial vegetation and invasive consumers affect water quality, we compared dissolved nutrient concentrations and physicochemical parameters among Hawaiian anchialine ponds surrounded by: (1) the nonnitrogen (N)-fixing tree Thespesia populnea (milo), (2) the exotic N-fixing tree Prosopis pallida (kiawe), (3) no tree cover, and (4) no tree cover but containing populations of invasive poeciliid fish. Average (±1 SE) concentration of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) across all ponds (51.15 µM ±3.1; n = 17) was high, but there was no discernible pattern among pond types. Model results suggest that leaf litter breakdown from the exotic N-fixing tree contributed
Databáze: OpenAIRE