THE EFFECT OF ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTANTS AND HYDROLOGY ON THE DEGRADATION OF PANNE VEGETATION BY INVASIVE SPECIES

Pannes are rare intradunal wetlands. Though small, they are known to exhibit extremely diverse and sensitive vegetation and are home to a number of reptile and amphibian species. In the United States, pannes are known to occur only around the Great Lakes Basin and Cape Cod. At Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, the fifteen known pannes have an unusually large variety of plant species for such a small geographic area and provide habitat for plant species found nowhere else in Indiana. However, these sensitive ecosystems have been exposed to over a century of atmospheric pollutants from the surrounding steel and coal industries. Since 1986, the native vegetation of the area is slowly being replaced by invasive species like Phragmites australis and Typha spp. This study attempts to explain the shift in vegetation. Pannes in two other locations, at a distance from the industrial complex, were used as control sites as they were not expected to be exposed to the same levels of heavy metal concentrations.

Four of the fifteen pannes at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, two of the four pannes at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan, and two of the three pannes at Warren Dunes State Park, Michigan, were studied, resulting in a total of eight pannes. The pannnes were stratified and sampled by hydroperiod. Surface soil samples and sediments at depth, were recovered from each of the pannes considered in this study and analyzed for heavy metal, phosphorus, carbon and nitrogen content.

Results show that high levels of organic matter coupled with high nutrients and high metals, in the soil, are a combination that may be considered a risk factor for future invasion of pannes by invasive species. It appears to be difficult for the native vegetation to deal with the high metals and high nutrients which are deleterious to the native vegetation and facilitate establishment of invasive vegetation which is more tolerant to the altered geochemical conditions.