Carex aquatilis is a widespread boreal species that is abundant in open fens and marshes. The species has broad natural tolerances to differing water levels and ion concentrations including occurrences in brackish marshes but not sodic wetlands. Sandhill Wetland, constructed on Syncrude Canada Ltd. mineral surface lease in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region, is a research site that was engineered to support a self-sustaining wetland. The site is currently in its eighth year post wet-up and is partially dominated by C. aquatilis. Increasing Na⁺ concentrations in the porewaters at Sandhill Wetland are an on-going concern for the performance of the existing plant communities. Here we examine the responses of C. aquatilis to an increasing regime of sodium carried out in a greenhouse experiment. We posed three questions for this experiment: (1) is there a threshold response for performance of C. aquatilis to increasing sodium, (2) if so, does it occur in the range of sodium that is present at current reclamation programs, and (3) is C. aquatilis resistant to high concentrations of sodium? Carex aquatilis survived all treatment concentrations of sodium including the highest treatment of 2354 mg L^− 1. In general, both structural and functional attributes of C. aquatilis did not differ between the 17 and 1079 mg L^− 1 treatments; however, performances of all attributes were reduced in the 2354 mg L^− 1 treatment. Belowground biomass had greater decreases compared to aboveground components, including both biomass and photosynthesis. The aboveground decreases in performance were associated with exclusion of sodium from the aboveground components by the belowground components. Reduction in photosynthesis was strongly correlated with reduced stomatal conductance and lower transpiration. Although C. aquatilis demonstrated a wide tolerance to sodium concentrations, a clear threshold was present between 1079 and 2354 mg L^− 1. These decreases in performance in our greenhouse trials were at levels currently present at Sandhill Wetland, and careful assessment of sodium concentrations in the near future needs to be continued.

水草苔属（Carex aquatilis）是一种广泛的北方物种，​​在开放的沼泽和沼泽中丰富。该物种对不同的水位和离子浓度具有广泛的自然耐受性，包括在微咸沼泽中发生的情况，而在苏打湿地中则没有。Sandhill湿地是在Athabasca油砂地区的Syncrude Canada Ltd.矿物表面租约上建造的，是一个旨在支持自持湿地的研究站点。该场地目前处于湿润后的第八年，部分被水产梭状芽胞杆菌所控制。在沙丘湿地的孔隙水中，Na ⁺浓度的增加是现有植物群落性能的持续关注。在这里，我们研究了水溶梭菌的反应在温室实验中增加钠的含量 我们对此实验提出了三个问题：（1）水产梭菌对钠的增加是否存在阈值响应；（2）如果是，则是否在当前开垦计划中出现的钠范围内发生；以及（ 3）水产梭状芽胞杆菌是否对高浓度的钠具有抗性？Aquax的Carex在所有浓度的钠中均存活下来，包括最高浓度2354 mg L ^-1的处理。一般而言，在17和1079 mg L ^-1处理之间，水产梭状芽胞杆菌的结构和功能属性没有差异。但是，在2354 mg L中，所有属性的性能均降低^{− 1次}治疗。与地上部分相比，地下生物量的下降幅度更大，包括生物量和光合作用。地上性能的下降与地上成分中钠从地上成分中的排除有关。光合作用的减少与气孔导度的降低和蒸腾作用的降低密切相关。尽管水产梭状芽胞杆菌显示出对钠浓度的宽容度，但在1079至2354 mg L ^-1之间存在明确的阈值。在我们的温室试验中，这些性能的下降达到了Sandhill Wetland当前的水平，因此需要在不久的将来继续仔细评估钠的浓度。