We assessed the impact of nutrient additions on greenhouse gas fluxes using dark static chambers in a microtidal and a macrotidal marsh along the coast of New Brunswick, Canada approximately monthly over a year. Both were experimentally fertilized for six years with varying levels of N and P. For unfertilized, N and NPK treatments, average yearly CO2 emissions (which represent only respiration)...

We conducted a free-water mass balance-based study to address the rate of metabolism and net carbon exchange for the tidal wetland and estuarine portion of the coastal ocean and the uncertainties associated with this approach were assessed. We measured open water diurnal O2 and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) dynamics seasonally in a salt marsh-estuary in Georgia, U.S.A. with a focus on the ma...

Coastal salt marshes are among Earth's most productive ecosystems and provide a number of ecosystem services, including interception of watershed-derived nitrogen (N) before it reaches nearshore oceans. Nitrogen pollution and climate change are two dominant drivers of global-change impacts on ecosystems, yet their interacting effects at the land-sea interface are poorly understood. We addressed...

The iconic dinosaur Stegosaurus was named by Othniel Charles Marsh of Yale University in 1877 from several caudal elements and a large dermal plate of Stegosaurus armatus Yale Peabody Museum specimen 1850 found in the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation near Morrison, Colorado, USA (Marsh 1887). In 1910, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History was the first institution to construct a mounted co...

Global changes, such as increased temperatures and elevated CO2, are driving shifts in plant species distribution and dominance, like woody plant encroachment into grasslands. Local factors within these ecotones can influence the rate of regime shifts. Woody encroachment is occurring worldwide, though there has been limited research within coastal systems, where mangrove (woody shrub/tree) stan...

Saltmarsh plants are exposed to multiple stresses including tidal inundation, salinity, wave action and sediment anoxia, which require specific root system adaptations to secure sufficient resource capture and firm anchorage in a temporary toxic environment. It is well known that many saltmarsh species develop large below-ground biomass (roots and rhizomes) but relations between fine roots, in ...

Full tidal action was restored to a 28-ha marshland in the brackish region of the San Francisco Bay Estuary to evaluate the impact of increased tidal circulation on Aedes dorsalis abundance. One year after project completion, mosquito abundance had decreased by 98.7%, from an average of 3.6 to 0.3 4th-instar larvae per dip. Larvicide applications have consequently been reduced from approximatel...

Direct and indirect human impacts on coastal ecosystems have increased over the last several centuries, leading to unprecedented degradation of coastal habitats and loss of ecological services. Here we document a two-century temporal disparity between salt marsh accretion and subsequent loss to indirect human impacts. Field surveys, manipulative experiments and GIS analyses reveal that crab bur...