Published

Long-term monitoring of salt marsh plant production revealed the role of river flow.
Credit: Andy Penninman

Long term monitoring, remote sensing, and field experiments showed that dominant estuarine plants grow up to 3 times better in years with low salinities, and that salinity is driven most strongly by river discharge. A high frequency of drought in 1998-2012 led to declines in plant biomass relative to the 28-year period of record for Landsat 8.

 

Learn more

  1. Di Iorio, D and Castelao, R. 2013. The Dynamical Response of Salinity to Freshwater Discharge and Wind Forcing in Adjacent Estuaries on the Georgia Coast. Special Issue: Coastal Long Term Ecological Research. Oceanography. doi: 10.5670/oceanog.2013.44
  2. O’Donnell, J and Schalles, JF. 2016. Examination of Abiotic Drivers and Their Influence on Spartina alterniflora Biomass over a Twenty-Eight Year Period Using Landsat 5 TM Satellite Imagery of the Central Georgia Coast. Special Issue: Remote Sensing in Coastal Environments. Remote Sensing. doi: 10.3390/rs8060477
  3. Wieski, K and Pennings, SC. 2014. Climate Drivers of Spartina alterniflora Saltmarsh Production in Georgia, USA. Ecosystems. doi: 10.1007/ s10021-013-9732-6

Contact

Merryl Alber
malber@uga.edu

Posted:  July 15, 2020