ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Conservation and Restoration Ecology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2025.1633852
Saltmarsh reclamation enhances plant species richness and reduces soil macrofaunal biomass by regulating soil properties through elevation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Zhejiang Institute of Hydraulics & Estuary, Hangzhou, China
- 2Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
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Globally, saltmarsh reclamation results in significant losses of coastal wetlands. However, the impacts on above-and below-ground biodiversity and the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that saltmarsh reclamation differently affects plant and soil macrofaunal communities by regulating soil properties through elevation. To test this, we surveyed 36 plots in Sheyang County, eastern China and used t-tests, redundancy analysis, and structural equation modelling to examine differences and the direct/indirect effects of elevation and soil physico-chemical properties on plant and soil macrofaunal diversity. Results showed that plant species richness in reclaimed areas was significantly higher than that in saltmarshes, whereas the total and average biomass of soil macrofauna exhibited an inverse pattern. Plant species richness positively associated with elevation but negatively correlated with soil available phosphorus (AP) and electrical conductivity (EC). The total and average biomass of soil macrofauna positively correlated with soil ammonium nitrogen (AN), total nitrogen (TN), total potassium (TK), and inversely related to total phosphorus (TP), elevation, mud content (SMC). Elevation indirectly increased plant species richness via soil water content (SWC), total carbon (TC), AN, and nitrate nitrogen (NN), but decreased it through bulk density (BD). For soil macrofauna, elevation indirectly reduced total biomass via SWC, TC, and AN, while indirectly increasing it through available 2 potassium (AK). These findings elucidate the mechanisms driving above-and below-ground biodiversity changes following saltmarsh reclamation, providing a comprehensive understanding of these ecological alterations.
Keywords: above-and below-ground biodiversity, Aquaculture ponds, Coastal wetland, Invasive Spartina alterniflora, Plant colonization, structural equation modelling
Received: 30 May 2025; Accepted: 18 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Wang, Xu, Hu, Huang, Gan, Chen and Jian. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guangzhi Zhang, Zhejiang Institute of Hydraulics & Estuary, Hangzhou, China
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