marshes

Lincoln Park Zoo researcher awarded prestigious conservation biology fellowship

... and allocating resources to protect against reed canary grass invasion. Reed canary grass is a fast-growing perennial grass that is a major threat to marshes and natural wetlands. The overabundance of it decreases biotic diversity and often has a devastating impact on ecosystem processes. Jacobi will wo...

Stevens chemists identify compounds to lure nutria, a rat-like pest ravaging Gulf Coast wetlands

...parts of the country, said Kirkhams report , warm weather in Louisiana has boosted their numbers. Already under pressure from saltwater intrusion, the marshes also have to deal with the nutria and their voracious appetite for the vital marsh roots that keep wetlands intact. Professor Attygalle and his bi...

marshes in Biological News

Study: Tropical wetlands hold more carbon than temperate marshes

COLUMBUS, Ohio In one of the first comparisons of its kind, researchers have demonstrated that wetlands in tropical areas are able to absorb and hold onto about 80 percent more carbon than can wetlands in temperate zones. The scientists extracted soil cores from wetlands in Costa Rica and in O...

Species unique to tidal marshes face threats

Tidal marshes cover only about 45,000 square kilometers worldwide--about the area of Denmark. In comparison with other habitats, tidal marshes support few nonaquatic vertebrate species, but their unique characteristics have led to the evolution of species and subspecies that are endemic (found nowh...

Iraq's marshes show progress toward recovery

Reflooding of Iraq's destroyed Mesopotamian marshes since 2003 has resulted in a "remarkable rate of reestablishment" of native invertebrates, plants, fish, and birds, according to an article in the June issue of BioScience. Curtis J. Richardson of Duke University and Najah A. Hussain of the Uni...

Salt marshes: A natural and unnatural history

...onmental service and protection they provide, salt marshes were once considered unproductive wastelands, home...light on the human impact of the marsh lands. SALT marshes includes chapters on physical and biological alter...ddition to a national and global perspective, SALT marshes places special emphasis on coastal wetlands in the...

Climate change may spell demise of key salt marsh constituent

...ROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Global warming may exact a toll on salt marshes in New England, but new research shows that one key constituent of marshes may be especially endangered. Pannes are waterlogged, low-oxygen zones o...

Scientists find climate change to have paradoxical effects in coastal wetlands

...n the face of actual sea-level rise and other climatic changes." Though marshes appear to benefit from CO 2 in the short-term, the scientists stress that ...ly, rapidly rising seas could outstrip the positive effects of CO 2 on the marshes that they have observed. "Wetlands are some of the most specialized and...

Dune and dirty: Hurricane teaches lessons through ecosystem research

...griLife Research. "The plants on sand dunes and in marshes build an island's elevation, so we shouldn't compromise that." Most of the dunes and marshes he and his graduate students had studied were dest..., when comparing before and after Ike, is that the marshes lost elevation, which is contrary to what most wou...

Commercial aquatic plants offer cost-effective method for treating wastewater

...er to comply with increasingly stringent environmental regulations. CWs, or marshes built to treat contaminated water, incorporate soil and drainage materials,...oorganisms. "Surface-flow" constructed wetlands resemble shallow freshwater marshes and generally require a large land area for wastewater treatment. More effe...

Flooding might help lower gas emission from wetlands

... storms that send water surging through swamps and marshes near rivers and coastal areas might cut in half th...eate conditions in the wetlands resembling natural marshes flooded with river water. In 2005, researchers pum...on to absorb the surge. "If we didn't have salt marshes and mangroves in subtropical and tropical coastal ...

'Nonlinear' ecosystem response points to environmental solutions

... In like fashion, they said, such approaches may be relevant to many other societal debates whether its health care or the preservation of protective marshes around New Orleans in which values can be assigned to various services and compromises reached. ...