Patterns of vegetation change and the recovery potential of degraded areas in a coastal marsh system of the Hudson Bay lowlands

Summary In recent decades, foraging by increasing numbers of lesser snow geese has led to loss of vegetation and changes in soil conditions in marshes on the Hudson Bay coast. Changes in species composition were recorded in areas unprotected from goose foraging and in exclosures of varying age (5–15 years) erected in intact swards and on bare sediments where foraging had occurred at La Pérouse Bay, Manitoba. In the supratidal marsh, plants failed to establish naturally in either open or exclosed (15 years) plots in bare areas. In moist intertidal soils, vegetative fragments of the asexual species Puccinellia phryganodes readily established and formed a mat in exclosures (5 years). Changes in species assemblages occurred over 11 years in exclosed and adjacent open plots in intertidal and supratidal marshes. Loss of vegetation cover and species richness, particularly dicotyledonous species, and the reversion of later successional plant assemblages to earlier successional assemblages occurred in open plots. In the absence of foraging, late successional graminoids and willow species replaced early successional graminoids. Late successional grasses of the upper intertidal marsh died when transplanted into degraded soils but still survived after one season in control plots, suggesting that an early successional template is needed for establishment. In the absence of goose foraging, natural re‐vegetation by clonal propagation can occur only where edaphic conditions are suitable. Within exclosures, vegetation changes resemble those in undamaged areas where goose foraging pressure is still moderate. We propose a state and transition model for vegetation change in the system based on succession patterns, alternative vegetation states and geomorphological events.