Affiliations: Department of Environmental Science, Liaoning
University, Shenyang 110036, China | Key Laboratory of Terrestrial Ecological Process,
Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016,
China | Department of Food Science, Biotechnology &
Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou University of Commerce, Hangzhou 310035,
China | Faculty of Agricultural and Applied Biological
Sciences, Leuven University, Leuven B-3001, Belgium | Department of Life Science, Liaoning University,
Shenyang 110036, China
Abstract: The fate of the litter of dominant vegetation (willows and reeds) is
one of the aspects studied in the frame of the project "Onderzoek Milieu
Effecten Sigmaplan". One of the questions to be considered is how long the
litter stays within the estuary. In this paper, the time the leaf litter (Salix
triandra and Phragmites australis) stayed in the Schelde estuary was studied by
using plant pigment as biomarkers with HPLC application. After analyzing the
original data from the incubation experiment described by Dubuison and Geers
(1999), the decomposition dynamics patterns of pigments were analyzed and
described, and these decomposition dynamics patterns were used as calibration
patterns. By using Spearman Rank Order Correlation, the calibration patterns of
the pigments which were significant (p<0.05) were grouped. In this way,
several groups of the calibration patterns of pigment decomposition were
achieved. The presence or absence of these groups of pigments (whether they can
be detected or not from HPLC) was shown to be useful in determining the time
the litter has stayed in the water. Combining data of DW and POC, more precise
timing can be obtained.
