Dynamic of Dominant Plant Communities in Kettle Holes (Northeast Germany) during a Five-Year Period of Extreme Weather Conditions
1
Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) e.V., 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
2
City University of Applied Sciences (HSB), 28199 Bremen, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Alenka Gaberščik
Water 2021, 13(5), 688; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050688
Received: 28 January 2021
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Revised: 25 February 2021
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Accepted: 26 February 2021
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Published: 3 March 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrology-Shaped Plant Communities: Diversity and Ecological Function)
Understanding the ecosystem functions and services of central European kettle holes (small wetlands) requires knowledge about their spatiotemporal dynamics. A lot of existing research has been conducted on the wet–dry cycles of North American potholes, but much less is known about kettle holes. Based on the extreme weather conditions between 2015 and 2020, we aimed to quantify differences among dominant plant communities of kettle holes using unmanned aerial systems. Different dominant plant communities were differently affected by dry and wet intervals with a major increase in terrestrial plants. Multivariate analysis showed strong variability in plant community composition for permanent and semi-permanent kettle holes, where hydrophytes decreased and nitrophilous perennials increased. Although we cannot provide quantitative results in succession over a five-year observation period, we found indications of progressive succession towards irreversible alternative stable states with woody plants for some kettle holes, especially of the “storage type”. Therefore, we assume stronger changes in proportion of wetland types in kettle holes compared to potholes and we expect the proportion of wood-dominated kettle holes to increase in the central European landscape in the future, leading to enhanced homogenization of the landscape accompanied by a loss of ecosystem functions and services.
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Keywords:
ponds; small wetlands; macrophytes; changes in the water surface; hydrological variability; succession; climate change; unmanned aerial system
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PDF-Document (PDF, 90 KiB)
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Externally hosted supplementary file 1
Doi: 10.4228/ZALF.DK.165
Link: http://released in the near future
Description: Coverage of dominant plant taxa, water surface area and hydrogeomorphological information for kettle holes surveyed in 2016, 2018 and 2020
MDPI and ACS Style
Pätzig, M.; Düker, E. Dynamic of Dominant Plant Communities in Kettle Holes (Northeast Germany) during a Five-Year Period of Extreme Weather Conditions. Water 2021, 13, 688. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050688
AMA Style
Pätzig M, Düker E. Dynamic of Dominant Plant Communities in Kettle Holes (Northeast Germany) during a Five-Year Period of Extreme Weather Conditions. Water. 2021; 13(5):688. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050688
Chicago/Turabian StylePätzig, Marlene, and Eveline Düker. 2021. "Dynamic of Dominant Plant Communities in Kettle Holes (Northeast Germany) during a Five-Year Period of Extreme Weather Conditions" Water 13, no. 5: 688. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050688
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