Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11
P
ROGRESS IN
P
LANT
-P
LANT
F
ACILITATION IN
C
OASTAL
W
ETLANDS
E
COSYSTEM
Liwen Zhang
1
and Hong-Bo Shao
1,2
*
1
Key Laboratory of Coastal Biology & Resources Utilization,Yantai Institute of Coastal
Zone Research (YIC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Yantai, China
2
Institute of Life Sciences, Qingdao University of Science & Technology,
Qingdao, China
A
BSTRACT
Coastal wetlands provide important ecosystem services to humanity, but human
activity and climate change are rapidly degrading these ecosystems. Thus the
conservation and restoration of coastal wetlands becomes an urgent issue. Species
facilitation among plants has regained attention of ecologists recently. Many studies in
coastal wetlands have revealed direct plant-plant facilitation influencing community
structure and ecosystem function, thus improving our understanding of community
organization and giving new directions for the restoration of degraded coastal wetlands.
Our paper examines studies of direct plant-plant facilitation in coastal wetlands with an
emphasis on tests of the stress gradient hypothesis and influences of species facilitation
on species zonation, species diversity patterns, phylogenetic diversity and ecosystem
function. Investigating how plant-plant facilitation affects ecosystem function is an
important future direction, which can provide basic knowledge applicable to the
preservation and recovery of coastal wetlands in these times of rapid global change.
Keywords:
Coastal wetland, species zonation, species facilitation, diversity, ecosystem
function, stress gradient hypothesis
Coastal areas make up only 4% of the earth's surface, but more than 1/3 of the world's
population resides in these areas. Coastal wetlands provide important ecosystem services to
*
Corresponding author: Hong-Bo Shao, Institute of Life Sciences, Qingdao University of Science &Technology,
Qingdao266042, China China. Tel: 86-535-2109191; Fax: 86-535-2109000; Email: shaohongbochu@
