Coastal plant communities are being transformed or lost because of sea level rise (SLR) and land-use change. In conjunction with SLR, the Florida Everglades ecosystem has undergone large-scale drainage and restoration, altering coastal vegetation throughout south Florida. To understand how coastal plant communities are changing over time, accurate mapping techniques are needed that can define p...

Thirty-four grass species were collected for phytolith analysis from a variety of coastal environments in the southeastern USA (Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana), including salt marshes, freshwater/brackish marshes, pine/oak forests, maritime hardwood forests, and sand dunes. Phytoliths produced by these modern grasses include a large diversity of shapes and types. We propose a preliminary relat...

Coastal marshes are an important component to the overall health of Long Island Sound. Located in the densely populated northeastern United States, Long Island Sound is subject to the extensive pressures imposed by having such a large population base living on or near its shores. Understanding the health and condition of the wetlands within the Sound plays an important part in protecting this v...

Coastal sandy ecosystems are increasingly being threatened by human pressure, causing loss of biodiversity, habitat degradation and landscape modifications. However, there are still very few detailed studies focussing on compositional changes in coastal dune plant communities over time. In this work, we investigated how coastal dune European Union (EU) habitats (from pioneer annual beach commun...

The large amount of coastal plant species available makes them ideal candidates for energy production. In this study, thermogravimetric analysis was used to evaluate the fuel properties of two coastal plant species, and the distributed activation energy model (DAEM) was employed in kinetic analysis. The major mass loss due to devolatilization started at 154 and 162°C at the heating rate of 10°C...

Compost amendment to grassland is a novel strategy proposed and demonstrated to increase ecosystem carbon (C) storage. However, the effects of compost applications on biomass production and plant diversity are not well known. We assessed impacts of a onetime compost amendment over 4 yr on plant dynamics in two grazed grassland ecosystems in California: a coastal prairie and valley grassland. Th...

The present review summarizes the literature on the effects of oil spill on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coastal vegetation including freshwater-, brackish-, and salt-marshes. When in contact with plant tissues, oil may have adverse impacts via physical and chemical effects. Oil may also become detrimental to plants by covering soil surfaces, leading to root oxygen stress and/or penetrate into the s...

Pitcher plant bogs, or carnivorous plant wetlands, have experienced extensive habitat loss and fragmentation throughout the southeastern United States Coastal Plain, resulting in an estimated reduction to <3% of their former range. This situation has lead to increased management attention of these habitats and their carnivorous plant species. However, conservation priorities focus primarily on ...