Author : Daniel John Smith
Release : 2020
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Kind : eBook
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Book Synopsis The Effect of Delayed Spring Drawdown on Moist-soil Seed Production by : Daniel John Smith

Download or read book The Effect of Delayed Spring Drawdown on Moist-soil Seed Production written by Daniel John Smith. This book was released on 2020. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The significant loss of seasonal and floodplain wetlands in California's Central Valley has led to declines in waterfowl and fish abundances. Historically, these key habitats provided important food resources to waterfowl throughout winter, and juvenile fish species throughout spring. Roughly 40% of California's remaining seasonal wetlands are managed to provide food resources, in the form of annual plant seeds, to wintering waterfowl. Traditional wetland management practices maximize annual plant production by draining wetlands in early spring. We examined how delayed spring drawdown impacted annual plant production. We used a 3 by 2 factorial arrangement of treatments, consisting of three drawdown dates, March 15 (early), April 15 (mid), and May 15 (late), and the presence or absence of a ten-day long irrigation applied six weeks after drawdown. We applied these treatments to 18 experimental wetland units over two consecutive years. We measured vegetation cover, height, biomass, and seed production to determine how annual wetland plant species responded to these treatments. We found species-specific responses to drawdown date resulted in a compensation effect, in which total seed production under the variety of treatments were similar yet the proportional contribution of the different plant species varied. These results suggest that delaying spring drawdown in seasonal or floodplain wetlands will not greatly impact the abundance of annual seeds that support wintering waterfowl.