More than 2 y have passed since the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, yet we still have little understanding of its ecological impacts. Examining effects of this oil spill will generate much-needed insight into how shoreline habitats and the valuable ecological services they provide (e.g., shoreline protection) are affected by and recover from large-scale disturbance. Here w...

An unditched salt marsh-creek drainage basin (Holland Glade Marsh, Lewes, Delaware) has a sedimentation rate of 0.5 cm year-l. During normal, storm-free conditions, the creek carries negligible amounts of sand and coarse silt. Of the material in the waters flooding the marsh surface, over 80% disappears from the floodwaters within 12 m of the creek. About one-half of the lost material is theore...

Silicon (Si) plays a critical role in plant functional ecology, protecting plants from multiple environmental stressors. While all terrestrial plants contain some Si, wetland grasses are frequently found to have the highest concentrations, although the mechanisms driving Si accumulation in wetland grasses remain in large part uncertain. For example, active Si accumulation is often assumed to be...

Research at 10 locations in coastal subtropical Queensland, Australia, has shown that salt marshes contained heterogeneous distributions of eggshells of the pest and vector mosquito Aedes vigilax (Skuse) (Diptera:Culicidae). The eggshell distribution was related to specific vegetation assemblages, with a mix of the grass, Sporobolus virginicus (L.) Kunth (Poales: Poaceae), and the beaded glassw...

At least 100 fish species are known to be present in the intertidal areas (estuaries, mudflats and salt marshes) of Mont Saint-Michel Bay. These and other comparable shallow marine coastal waters, such as estuaries and lagoons, play a nursery role for many fish species. However, in Europe little attention has been paid to the value of tidal salt marshes for fishes. Between March 1996 and April ...

Title of Document: CRITICAL PATCH SIZES AND THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF SALT MARSH COMMUNITIES. Holly Marie Martinson, Ph.D., 2009 Directed By: Professor William F. Fagan, Department of Biology The size, connectivity, and quality of habitat patches can have multifaceted impacts on species and communities. In this dissertation, I combined a multi-year field survey, manipulative field experiments, a...

Belowground herbivory is commonly overlooked as a mechanism of top-down control in vegetated habitats, particularly in aquatic ecosystems. Recent research has revealed that increased densities of the herbivorous crab Sesarma reticulatum have led to runaway herbivory and widespread salt marsh die-off on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. Aboveground herbivory is a major driver of this cordgrass habit...

Wetland grasses and grass-like monocots are very important natural remediators of pollutants. Their genetic improvement is an important task because introduction of key transgenes can dramatically improve their remediation potential. Tissue culture is prerequisite for genetic manipulation, and methods are reported here for in vitro culture and micropropagation of a number of wetland plants of v...

8 [1] Salt marshes are often dissected by a network of 9 channels formed by tidal oscillations and related water 10 fluxes. In this note we present a stochastic model able to 11 simulate the formation and evolution of tidal networks in 12 salt marshes. The model is based on a simplification of the 13 shallow water equations that enables the determination of 14 the water surface gradients on the...