Download or read book Decadal Changes in Salt Marsh Succession and Assessing Salt Marsh Vulnerability Using High Resolution Hyperspectral Imagery written by Sarah Goldsmith and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Change in the coastal zone is accelerating with external forcing by sea-level rise, nutrient loading, drought and over-harvest is impacting salt marshes. Understanding marsh resilience, including recovery from coastal storms and detection of stress, is essential for conservation and prediction of ecosystem services. The ‘chronosequence approach’ of predicting future state change by examining ecosystem structure and function in existing ecosystems of different ages is a powerful tool, but assumes that the past mimics the future, and time is the dominant driver of change. This approach was evaluated by replicating a 1995 salt marsh chronosequence study in back-barrier marshes ranging from 4 to >170 yr old on Hog Island, Virginia. Physico-chemical properties, such as porewater redox potential and sediment organic matter and nutrients, followed predictable age-related patterns. However, invertebrate abundance, plant biomass, and sediment grain size instead seemed to respond to sea level rise and stochastic die-off and sand deposition. Thus, while time drives the intrinsic evolution of some physico-chemical components, extrinsic drivers exert a strong influence on key biotic-abiotic feedbacks. Exacerbation of external forcing may push the trajectory of marsh succession away from a predictable trajectory, limiting ecosystem services. This rapid evolution of marsh state makes the ability to detect stressors prior to marsh collapse important. Hyperspectral imagery of plants was collected in marshes of varying age/stressor characteristics, including salinity, sediment redox potential and nitrogen availability, and in the greenhouse, where environmental conditions were manipulated. Models developed to stressors based on plant spectral response were useful for salinity and nitrogen within the greenhouse or within the field, but were not transferable from lab to field. This study is an important step towards development of a remote sensing tool for tracking of ecosystem development, marsh health, and future ecosystem services."--Abstract.
Download or read book Human Impacts on Salt Marshes written by Brian R. Silliman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2009-06-03 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Human Impacts on Salt Marshes provides an excellent global synthesis of an important, underappreciated environmental problem and suggests solutions to the diverse threats affecting salt marshes."—Peter B. Moyle, University of California, Davis
Download or read book Assessing the Vulnerability of Salt Marsh Habitats to Sea Level Rise in California written by Jordan Alexander Rosencranz and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Predicted sea-level rise (SLR) could have catastrophic impacts on the coastal zone. Salt marshes have evolved under low SLR, but their resilience to higher rates is uncertain. Assessing vulnerabilities of California's salt marshes is a case study of the diversity and scale of problems that land managers will face. The major questions of this study were: 1) Are recent sediment budgets allowing southern California salt marshes to keep pace with SLR; 2) within its current range, how vulnerable are two sub-species of Ridgway's rail (Rallus obsoletus; rails), a low elevation salt marsh specialist, to SLR; and 3) within its current range, how vulnerable are Belding's savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis beldingi; sparrows), a high elevation salt marsh specialist, to SLR? To answer the first question, tidal creek sediment fluxes were measured in two sites with different levels of adjacent urbanization. To answer the second and third questions, original and pre-existing wildlife and habitat data were compiled at 17 sites to forecast habitat suitability. Storms and high tides led to sediment import in tidal creeks at Mugu and Seal. While sediment budgets were balanced during the dry study period, Seal's elevation declined, and Mugu's elevation plateaued, suggesting that only Mugu would persist if SLR rate stabilizes. For the Ridgway's Rail study, under a SLR scenario of +166cm/100yr, suitable habitat for the San Francisco Bay Area's (SF) sub-species will increase by 35% at mid-century, and current breeding habitat extent for Southern California's (SC) sub-species will increase by 24%. However, by 2100, SF will lose 84% of suitable habitat and SC will lose 80% of its current habitat extent. Furthermore, six salt marshes will lose over 95% of suitable habitat. Under the same scenario, the current extent of Belding's Savannah sparrow habitat will contract by 61% at mid-century before completely drowning by 2100. Results from the habitat suitability studies indicate that if no major adaptations, such as protecting the shoreline, increasing elevations, restoring marsh drainage, facilitating marsh migration, and restoring sediment delivery, are implemented soon, salt marsh-dependent wildlife in the majority of California coastal zones will be extirpated by 2100 under high SLR scenarios.
Download or read book The Ecology of New England High Salt Marshes written by Scott W. Nixon and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Assessment and Characterization of Salt Marshes in the Arthur Kill New York and New Jersey Replanted After a Severe Oil Spill written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The World of The Salt Marsh written by Charles Seabrook and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The World of the Salt Marsh is a wide-ranging exploration of the southeastern coast--its natural history, its people and their way of life, and the historic and ongoing threats to its ecological survival. Focusing on areas from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to Cape Canaveral, Florida, Charles Seabrook examines the ecological importance of the salt marsh, calling it "a biological factory without equal." Twice-daily tides carry in a supply of nutrients that nourish vast meadows of spartina ( Spartina alterniflora )--a crucial habitat for creatures ranging from tiny marine invertebrates to wading birds. The meadows provide vital nurseries for 80 percent of the seafood species, including oysters, crabs, shrimp, and a variety of finfish, and they are invaluable for storm protection, erosion prevention, and pollution filtration. Seabrook is also concerned with the plight of the people who make their living from the coast's bounty and who carry on its unique culture. Among them are Charlie Phillips, a fishmonger whose livelihood is threatened by development in McIntosh County, Georgia, and Vera Manigault of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, a basket maker of Gullah-Geechee descent, who says that the sweetgrass needed to make her culturally significant wares is becoming scarcer. For all of the biodiversity and cultural history of the salt marshes, many still view them as vast wastelands to be drained, diked, or "improved" for development into highways and subdivisions. If people can better understand and appreciate these ecosystems, Seabrook contends, they are more likely to join the growing chorus of scientists, conservationists, fishermen, and coastal visitors and residents calling for protection of these truly amazing places.
Download or read book Salt Marshes written by Duncan M. FitzGerald and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-22 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A multidisciplinary review of salt marshes, describing how they function and respond to external pressures such as sea-level rise.
Download or read book Salt Marshes written by Judith S Weis and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-16 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tall green grass. Subtle melodies of songbirds. Sharp whines of muskrats. Rustles of water running through the grasses. And at low tide, a pungent reminder of the treasures hidden beneath the surface.All are vital signs of the great salt marshes' natural resources. Now championed as critical habitats for plants, animals, and people because of the environmental service and protection they provide, these ecological wonders were once considered unproductive wastelands, home solely to mosquitoes and toxic waste, and mistreated for centuries by the human population. Exploring the fascinating biodiversity of these boggy wetlands, Salt Marshes offers readers a wealth of essential information about a variety of plants, fish, and animals, the importance of these habitats, consequences of human neglect and thoughtless development, and insight into how these wetlands recover. Judith S. Weis and Carol A. Butler shed ample light on the human impact, including chapters on physical and biological alterations, pollution, and remediation and recovery programs. In addition to a national and global perspective, the authors place special emphasis on coastal wetlands in the Atlantic and Gulf regions, as well as the San Francisco Bay Area, calling attention to their historical and economic legacies. Written in clear, easy-to-read language, Salt Marshes proves that the battles for preservation and conservation must continue, because threats to salt marshes ebb and flow like the water that runs through them.
Download or read book Remote Sensing of Estuarine Salt Marsh written by Gunnar Arne Olson and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Ecology of a Salt Marsh written by L. R. Pomeroy and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecologists have two long-standing ways to study large ecosystems such as lakes, forests, and salt-marsh estuaries. In the first, which G. E. Hutchinson has called the holological approach, the whole ecosystem is first studied as a "black box," and its components are investigated as needed. In the second, which Hutchinson has called the merological approach, the parts of the system are studied first, and an attempt is then made to build up the whole from them. For long-term studies, the holological approach has special advantages, since the general patterns and tentative hypotheses that are first worked out help direct attention to the components of the system which need to be studied in greater detail. In this approach, teams of investigators focus on major func tions and hypotheses and thereby coordinate their independent study efforts. Thus, although there have been waves, as it were, of investigators and graduate students working on different aspects of the Georgia salt-marsh estuaries (personnel at the Marine Institute on Sapelo Island changes every few years), the emphasis on the holo logical approach has resulted in a highly differentiated and well-coordinated long-term study. Very briefly, the history of the salt-marsh studies can be outlined as follows. First, the general patterns of food chains and other energy flows in the marshes and creeks were worked out, and the nature of imports and exports to and from the system and its subsystems were delimited.
Download or read book Building Salt Marshes Along the Coasts of the Continental United States written by W. W. Woodhouse and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Vulnerability of Salt Marsh Bird Populations to Sea Level Rise written by Elizabeth Ann Hunter and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sea level rise (SLR) poses a substantial threat to many coastal species through inundation and fragmentation of habitat and increases in the frequency and severity of extreme high tides and storms. This dissertation comprises a vulnerability assessment for salt marsh bird species, investigating the exposure, sensitivity, and resilience of species to SLR. In Chapter 2, we found that vertebrate species that relied heavily on salt marshes (as opposed to other landcover types such as forests and freshwater marshes) would be most exposed to changes from SLR, primarily in the form of fragmentation. Given this outcome, we examined sensitivity differences between two salt marsh specialist species: Clapper Rails and Seaside Sparrows (Chapter 3). Although both of these species are salt marsh obligates, we found striking differences in their habitat preferences, which will lead to divergent responses to SLR. Clapper Rails will likely benefit from SLR in the short term; however, Seaside Sparrows will experience drastic declines in their preferred habitats of high elevation, high salinity marshes far from forests. In Chapter 4, we investigated a conservation area planning technique called "conserving nature's stage" (CNS) that could be used to find climate change-resilient habitat for multiple species with differing responses to SLR. We found a strong relationship between environmental and species diversity, and sites chosen by CNS were also resilient to SLR. CNS thus seems to be a viable strategy for conservation site selection in salt marshes, and potentially other areas where SLR will affect environmental features. In Chapter 5, we investigated another aspect of Seaside Sparrow ecology: how their nest site selection is affected by a trade-off to avoid threats of predation and tidal inundation. We found that sparrows dealt with this trade-off by altering their habitat selection behaviors in relation to a threat's predictability. Using an individual-based model (Chapter 6), we found that such behaviors may increase the species' resiliency to SLR, but nest success rates could become very low under extreme SLR scenarios.
Download or read book Ecology and Management of Tidal MarshesA Model from the Gulf of Mexico written by Charles L. Coultas and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1997-03-07 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a major compendium of the existing knowledge of the ecology and management of tidal marshes by some of the leading experts in the field. The major theme of the book is the interconnectedness of the marsh, plants, marine organisms, soils and geology, energy and money flow, and legal and management effects on the system. Emphasis is placed throughout on the fact that nature has provided a free service that can either be maintained and enhanced by man or destroyed and forever lost. At a time of declining fisheries, this book points the way to management strategies that are needed to effect improvement.
Download or read book Biophysical Remote Sensing of Salt Marshes in South East United States written by Shuvankar Ghosh and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Study of salt marsh biophysical properties is imperative to understand its response to environmental change. We developed protocols for mapping biophysical properties of salt marshes such as Green Leaf Area Index (GLAI), Canopy Chlorophyll (CHLc), Vegetation Fraction (VF), and aboveground Green Biomass (GBM) using moderate resolution satellite images and in-situ data for the salt marshes in south-eastern United States. The time-series products derived using the biophysical models have been able to capture the spatio-temporal effects of the environmental events affecting the salt marshes of the region. We also tested the performance of different smoothing functions to derive noise-free phenology for Louisiana (LA) and Georgia (GA) salt marshes from the time-series GBM composites, and selected the best smoothing function to derive and analyze phenological parameters for salt marsh habitats. Long-term trend analysis of phenological parameters indicate positive changes in the base GBM values, and mostly negative changes in the GBM amplitude and small seasonal integral, which indicate overall progressive decline in the rates of photosynthesis and biomass allocation in the salt marsh ecosystem. This observed decline in photosynthesis and biomass allocation may be attributed to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and sea level rise. Finally we attempted to map Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) for a salt marsh habitat in the Gulf Coast, using the GBM composites and in-situ GPP estimates from eddy covariance CO2 flux towers. The time-series composites and phenological charts developed using the biophysical GPP model was able to capture the effect of different environmental events such as dieback and hurricane landfall. The results illustrate the relative efficiency of MODIS in analyzing salt marsh biophysical properties. This is the first study to employ MODIS images to study the long-term trends in biophysical characteristics of salt marshes in south-east United States. The methods described in this study as well as the biophysical products derived using the methods has the potential to improve our ability to predict their productivity and carbon sequestration potential. These techniques could also be used to assess the success of previous and ongoing salt marsh restoration projects, and evaluate the productivity of marshes under threat from both natural and anthropogenic drivers.
Download or read book Response of a Salt Marsh to Oil Spill and Cleanup written by Phillip C. Dibner and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Seasons of the Salt Marsh written by David Alan Gates and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both a useful handbook for the field-naturalist and an illumination exploration for the layman of an unappreciated part of our land is "Seasons of the Salt Marsh." Because the tidal salt marsh is neither land nor sea, life within its confines must be equipped with a marvelous adaptability, not only to the changing seasons, but to the daily rise and fall of the tides that alternately flood and expose its surface. Gates examines its fertile habitat, development since the last ice age, the interaction of its plants and animals, and the abiding importance of the total ecosystem.
Download or read book Life and Death of the Salt Marsh written by John Teal and published by Boston : Little, Brown. This book was released on 1969 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows how these marshes developed, what kinds of life inhabit them, how enormously they have contributed to man, and how ruthlessly man is destroying them, for instance, the BP oil spill.
