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Vuerich M, Cingano P, Trotta G, Petrussa E, Braidot E, Scarpin D, Bezzi A, Mestroni M, Pellegrini E, Boscutti F. New perspective for the upscaling of plant functional response to flooding stress in salt marshes using remote sensing. Sci Rep 2024; 14:5472. [PMID: 38443548 PMCID: PMC10914724 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-56165-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2023] [Accepted: 03/02/2024] [Indexed: 03/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Understanding the response of salt marshes to flooding is crucial to foresee the fate of these fragile ecosystems, requiring an upscaling approach. In this study we related plant species and community response to multispectral indices aiming at parsing the power of remote sensing to detect the environmental stress due to flooding in lagoon salt marshes. We studied the response of Salicornia fruticosa (L.) L. and associated plant community along a flooding and soil texture gradient in nine lagoon salt marshes in northern Italy. We considered community (i.e., species richness, dry biomass, plant height, dry matter content) and individual traits (i.e., annual growth, pigments, and secondary metabolites) to analyze the effect of flooding depth and its interplay with soil properties. We also carried out a drone multispectral survey, to obtain remote sensing-derived vegetation indices for the upscaling of plant responses to flooding. Plant diversity, biomass and growth all declined as inundation depth increased. The increase of soil clay content exacerbated flooding stress shaping S. fruticosa growth and physiological responses. Multispectral indices were negatively related with flooding depth. We found key species traits rather than other community traits to better explain the variance of multispectral indices. In particular stem length and pigment content (i.e., betacyanin, carotenoids) were more effective than other community traits to predict the spectral indices in an upscaling perspective of salt marsh response to flooding. We proved multispectral indices to potentially capture plant growth and plant eco-physiological responses to flooding at the large scale. These results represent a first fundamental step to establish long term spatial monitoring of marsh acclimation to sea level rise with remote sensing. We further stressed the importance to focus on key species traits as mediators of the entire ecosystem changes, in an ecological upscaling perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Vuerich
- DI4A Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100, Udine, Italy.
- NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, 90133, Palermo, Italy.
| | - Paolo Cingano
- DI4A Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100, Udine, Italy
- Department of Environmental and Life Sciences (DSV), University of Trieste, 34127, Trieste, Italy
| | - Giacomo Trotta
- DI4A Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100, Udine, Italy
- Department of Environmental and Life Sciences (DSV), University of Trieste, 34127, Trieste, Italy
| | - Elisa Petrussa
- DI4A Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100, Udine, Italy
| | - Enrico Braidot
- DI4A Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100, Udine, Italy
| | - Dora Scarpin
- DI4A Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100, Udine, Italy
| | - Annelore Bezzi
- Department of Mathematics and Geosciences, University of Trieste, 34128, Trieste, Italy
| | - Michele Mestroni
- Agricoltura Innovativa Mestroni, 33036, Mereto di Tomba, UD, Italy
| | - Elisa Pellegrini
- DI4A Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100, Udine, Italy
| | - Francesco Boscutti
- DI4A Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100, Udine, Italy
- NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, 90133, Palermo, Italy
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