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Effects of Water Table Drawdown on Root Production and Aboveground Biomass in a Boreal Bog

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Abstract

We studied the effect of long-term water table drawdown on the vascular plant community in an ombrotrophic bog in central Finland by measuring aboveground biomass and belowground production (by in-growth cores) across plant functional groups including herbs, shrubs, and trees. We compared drained and undrained portions 45 years after the installation of a drainage ditch network, which has lowered water levels of 15–20 cm on average in the drained part of the site. Although shrub fine root production did not differ significantly between sites, water table drawdown increased belowground tree fine root production by 740% (3.8 ± 5.4 SD and 28.1 ± 24.1 g m−2 y−1 in undrained and drained sites, respectively) at the expense of herb root production, which declined 38% (27.62 ± 16.40 and 10.58 ± 15.7 g m−2 y−1 in undrained and drained sites, respectively) yielding no significant overall change in total fine root production. Drainage effects on aboveground biomass showed a similar pattern among plant types, as aboveground tree biomass increased dramatically with drainage (79 ± 135 and 2546 ± 1551 g m−2 in drained and undrained sites, respectively). Although total shrub biomass was not significantly different between sites, shrubs allocated more biomass to stems than leaves in the drained site. Drainage also caused a significant shift in shrub species composition. Although trees dominated the aboveground biomass following water table drawdown, understorey vegetation, mainly shrubs, continued to dominate belowground fine root production, comprising 64% of total root production at the drained site. Aboveground biomass proved to be a good predictor of belowground production, suggesting that allometric relationships can be developed to estimate belowground production in these systems. Increase in tree root production can counteract decrease in herb fine root production following water table drawdown, emphasizing the importance of plant functional type responses to water table drawdown. Whether these changes will offset ecosystem C loss via increased plant C storage or stimulate soil organic matter decomposition via increased above- and belowground litter inputs requires further study.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Lilian Ames, Jacob Pluto, and Nicole Sanderson for their help sorting roots in the laboratory, as well as Jani Anttila, Candice Bohonis-Seyersen, Timo Penttilä, and Petra Vávřová for help in the field. We gratefully acknowledge the comments of two anonymous reviewers and the Associate Editor, which have improved the manuscript. Special thanks to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Le Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies, and the Academy of Finland (124573) for funding.

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  1. Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2K6, Canada

    Meaghan Murphy & Tim R. Moore

  2. Department of Forest Ecology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Raija Laiho

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  1. Meaghan Murphy
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Correspondence to Meaghan Murphy.

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Author Contributions

M. Murphy contributed to study design and methodology, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the article. R. Laiho contributed to the study design, performed research, contributed to manuscript writing. T. R. Moore contributed to manuscript writing and data analysis.

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Murphy, M., Laiho, R. & Moore, T.R. Effects of Water Table Drawdown on Root Production and Aboveground Biomass in a Boreal Bog. Ecosystems 12, 1268–1282 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-009-9283-z

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