Coastal wetland plant community responses to record-high Lake Superior water levels: An Allouez Bay case study

Here we present findings from a natural experiment to better understand coastal wetland plant community responses to rising water levels. Plant communities were monitored in three vegetation zones (submergent, emergent, and wet meadow) at Allouez Bay, a lacustrine coastal marsh, six times over years 2011–2020. Lake Superior water levels reached record-highs in 2017, and again in 2019. During our six sampling campaigns, we encountered eighty-four vascular plant species, seven of which were non-native. Except for reductions in total plant cover in the wet meadow zone, emergent and wet meadow plant communities were only marginally affected by rising water. Percent cover of non-native species did not increase in a clear pattern. Temporal changes in floristic quality were non-significant at the whole site level, and mean coefficient of conservatism values ranged from 5.3 to 6.0. Aquatic vegetation in the submergent zone was most affected by rising water. Submergent zone richness declined from sixteen plant species in 2011 to zero in 2020. Multivariate PERMANOVA analysis showed significant effects of year on site-wide plant composition. Temporal composition changes were predominately driven by species turnover in the submergent vegetation zone, whereby floating aquatic species were replaced by non-floating species from 2011 to 2017, and an absence of aquatic vegetation along research transects in 2020. Tracking regeneration of aquatic vegetation is a focus of future research as unknown effects from prolonged exposure to record-high water levels may affect natural regenerative processes at Allouez Bay, and potentially at other lacustrine Great Lakes wetlands throughout the basin.