#spartina patens

[aisling-saoirse]

Tangled High Marsh Grasses - September 17th 2023

[fratresdei]

Thoroughly obsessed with this painting in the Fratres Dei Spiritual Direction office

Native; Paten Spartina (marsh grasses) by JessicaMDalrymple on Etsy

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Delaware’s Tidal Wetlands

In the low-lying reaches of Delaware, the land breathes with the ebb and flow of the tide. These tides support the marshes (tidal wetlands) lining much of Delaware Bay.

Marshes are one of several wetland types that together cover about one-quarter of Delaware—the second-smallest U.S. state. These semi-aquatic ecosystems, which provide habitat for plants and animals, improve water quality, and help protect against flooding and erosion.

These images, acquired on September 3, 2024, with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8, show a segment of the region’s coastal wetlands in Delaware and New Jersey. In the false-color image (right), open water appears dark blue, and low-lying areas inundated with water (marsh) appear dark blue-green. Farther inland, the vegetation in agricultural, forested, and urban areas appears bright green.

Tidal wetlands lie at the intersection of land and water, where the shore meets an ocean, bay, river, or stream. They regularly flood and drain with the rise and fall of the tides. When these images were acquired at about 11:40 a.m. local time (15:40 Universal Time), waters in the vicinity of the Leipsic River were approaching high tide.

The Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, centered in the images at the top of this page and shown in detail in the image above, protects 25 square miles (65 square kilometers) along the Delaware coast. About 20 square miles of that area is tidal salt marsh—one of the largest remaining expanses of the ecosystem in the mid-Atlantic, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Salt marsh hay (Spartina patens) grows here, providing habitat for animals and shorebirds.

Bombay Hook is one in a series of refuges located along the Atlantic Flyway. In September, birdwatchers visiting the refuge can see late-migrating shorebirds and songbirds and the arrival of the season’s first Canada geese. It’s also the time of year when tickseed sunflower, goldenrod, and Joe-Pye-weed are flowering.

Even protected tidal wetlands, however, can undergo marsh migration—a process in which rising sea levels drown a marsh and cause it to move inland. In 2021, researchers with NASA’s DEVELOP program used observations from several satellites to map Delaware’s marshes and project where these marshes are likely to migrate in the future. They found that between 2010 and 2020, the state lost nearly 7 square miles of coastal marshes; however, some sites—especially toward the middle of the coastline—are suitable for future marsh migration.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Kathryn Hansen.

[asgardian--angels]

I love you salt marshes. I love you mudflats and salt pannes, and all the shorebirds that probe for invertebrates beneath your surface, leaving tracks behind. I love you anoxic sulfur-metabolizing bacteria. I love you Spartina patens, and a thundering dark sky against your windswept plain. I love you fish nursery habitat and wave energy absorber. I love you saltmarsh sparrows, even as you lose a race against time, and I am grateful to have looked into your eyes and seen unrelenting resilience there, confident you won’t go down without a fight. I love you mummichogs, pushing the limits of salt tolerance. I love you Salicornia, like neon pink Christmas trees. I love you mosquito ditch lines, visible reminders etched into your skin of how we have mistreated you and must do better. I love you, sense of serenity standing alone in your rustling grasses as the tide comes in, for a moment imagining the world as it once was, when you covered the whole coast and kept both land and sea bountiful and safe from harm. I love you, enough to work to restore your honor and dignity. I love you, I love you, I love you, salt marsh.

[novel-ecologist]

To the untrained eye, salt marshes don't seem like the coolest ecosystem. They smell like a hard-boiled egg that’s been in the fridge for three months, they're flat, and if you don't watch where you're walking, you could end up knee-deep in a muddy hole. Despite being somewhat unappealing to the senses, salt marshes have some incredible qualities that make them important to the climate, animals, and local communities. Since they are often unrecognized for their better qualities, between 25% and 67% of salt marshes have been altered globally. With the impending doom of sea-level rise and climate change, people are starting to realize the importance of salt marshes in fighting these risks. Fortunately, many researchers have begun to reclaim salt marshes. Aulac may be a small community in New Brunswick, but it’s making big waves in salt marsh restoration. Spencer Virgin, his research team, and other partners conducted the first managed realignments in Maritime Canada, which is reversing historical ecosystem alterations.

The origin story of salt marshes is an amazing one. Salt marshes are an ecosystem that are on the border between marine and terrestrial ecosystems and are heavily influenced by tides. A few thousand years ago, when sea levels began to rise, much of the terrestrial ecosystems on the coast were flooded with seawater, destroying all the plants that lived there. When tides flooded these coastal areas, they deposited large amounts of sediment, which created a blank slate for new species to colonize. However, the salty and waterlogged soil isn't an ideal habitat for most plants. Fortunately, Spartina alterniflora, a salt marsh grass, finds these conditions perfect for survival and stays in the marsh zone that’s flooded daily (Fig. 1). S. alterniflora is known as an ecosystem engineer because it can slow the flow of water and increase sediment deposition, which is critical for other species to establish. Think of S. alterniflora like people in a pool and the tides like a whirlpool. When the people in the pool stop moving, the water circulating in the whirlpool slows. Slow-moving water doesn't have enough strength to carry sediment, so it drops it onto the marsh. Accumulation of soil causes the salt marsh to elevate until it escapes the daily flooding in the high marsh zones (Fig.1). Other grasses, such as Spartina patens, who are less tolerant to flooding and salt, can live in the less frequently floored area that S. alterniflora creates (Fig. 1). As the sediments accumulate and increase the elevation of the marsh, it creates areas even less exposed to tides so salt and flood intolerant species can colonize (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Salt marsh structure and tidal influence.

Hypothetically, this process of sediment deposition can go on forever. That is part of the reason why salt marshes are so important in the fight against sea-level rise. If salt marshes have space to move horizontally along the landscape, they can continue to elevate and prevent the ocean from flooding neighboring communities. Salt marshes are also one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. They produce new grass annually that can extract CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their leaves. Finally, salt marshes host many ecologically and economically important marine species, such as striped bass, shrimp, eels, and mussels.

Unfortunately, a huge proportion of salt marshes in eastern North America have been dramatically altered to suit the needs of settlers. How do you alter a salt marsh, and what do you change it to? The sediment the tides bring in from the ocean is chalked full of nutrients and makes a perfect fertilizer. Flat ground and abundant fertilizer create the perfect conditions for growing crops. The only problem is that most agricultural species can’t tolerate salt and flooding. However, farmers found a way around this: in a Trump mentality, they built a wall to keep the ocean out and the nutrients in. These walls are called dikes. But diking causes a problem for salt marshes since tides are one of the driving forces that shape salt marshes. Eventually, salt marshes lose all their carbon sequestration and flood reduction properties.

In New Brunswick (NB), Canada, 30500 hectares (approximately the size of 57000 football fields) of salt marshes have been diked to create farmlands. The Bay of Fundy in NB is known for its nutrient-rich waters, which makes it ideal for salt marsh conversion. The Aulac salt marsh is one of many salt marshes in NB that has been diked. In 2010, sea-level rise and coastal erosion began to wear so heavily at the dike that it broke open. Researchers, local organizations, and the community saw this as an opportunity for restoration. First, they built another dike behind the old one to keep the tides away from the neighboring farms, then removed the old dikes. This process is called a managed realignment and was the first in Maritime Canada. Since the dike was removed, the tides of the Bay of Fundy could reclaim the agricultural fields and turn them back into salt marshes. Virgin et al. saw this as an opportunity to learn about the stages of salt marsh restoration.

After the dike was breached, they did not intervene with any other aspects of the marsh and let the restoration process occur naturally. However, Virgin et al. did conduct an extensive monitoring program to see what steps occurred as the marsh restored itself. Aulac has four salt marshes that are divided from one another, but only two were diked. The remaining two healthy salt marshes are adjacent to the restored ones and were used as a reference for what the final product of the salt marsh restoration should be. Over eight consecutive years, the team monitored changes in plant species, fish and invertebrate communities, and sediment deposition in all four salt marshes. From 2010 to 2018, they noticed a change in the restoration sites from the freshwater grass Spartina pectinata to the salt marsh engineer Spartina alterniflora as sediment increased on the marsh platform. In general, the plant and animal communities became more and more analogous to the reference marshes over time. Although the salt marsh has not yet seen the establishment of Spartina patens and other salt/flood intolerant species, it is firmly in the third stage of salt marsh restoration, where S. alterniflora is abundant and can create the conditions for those species to establish and thrive.

Managed realignment is the perfect compromise to maintain active farmlands while restoring salt marshes that will help combat climate change. For communities like NB, which are at risk for sea-level rise and have lost salt marshes, this research will be an important guideline for future restoration projects.

Cheers,

The Novel Ecologist

Click this link to read the paper

[gowanusnightheron]

GOWANUS NIGHT HERON CASE STUDY: Art Garden (mixed media) In the spirit of experimentation, "Art Garden" is my first attempt to incorporate living plant matter into an artwork. My case study has 3 different species of grasses; Spartina paten, Spartina pectinata, and Juncus effusus, all planted at different stages of growth; seed, starter plug, and potted plant. All are wetland grasses representing the marshlands native to the Gowanus landscape. The imagery around the box is a mosaic of repurposed mixed media artwork depicting the past, present, and future (potentially) Gowanus. As Gowanus undergoes rezoning and development I echo community voices in advocating for increased green space, green infrastructure, public water access, and healthy ecosystems that foster wildlife, mitigate climate change damage, and benefit all inhabitants by integrating larger swaths of nature into the urban hardscape. Jessica Dalrymple maintains a studio practice in Brooklyn, NY. She has exhibited with many national and regional juried shows and has received numerous awards including the Fenimore Award which granted her a solo exhibit at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY. She is also earning her certificate in horticulture from Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, is a licensed city tree pruner, and actively volunteers with environmental groups. She collaborates with organizations to create art events that raise awareness about local landscapes and the environmental at large, such as; co-creating ArtLab Gowanus, a pop-up structure hosting landscape related art workshops taught by local artists, made possible by the Gowanus Public Art Grant, applied for in collaboration with The Gowanus Canal Conservancy (2015). In 2014 she created a “Plein Air On The Canal” event hosting orgs including local chapters of The Urban Sketchers and Oil Painters of America on the banks of the canal to capture the evolving landscape. Other events include a Spring Botanical Draw for the Gowanus Dredgers focusing on local vegetation, Botanical Drawing events for The Old Stone House Brooklyn featuring their gardens, and a Botanical “Drink N Draw” event to raise funds for The Human Impact Institute. Most recently she leads monthly Nature Journaling Hikes each month through New York City Parks. JessicaDalrymple.com https://www.instagram.com/jessicadalrymple jessicamdalrymple@gmail.com All Case Study artist boxes are available to purchase for $150 at the Gowanus Open Studios event. Or email gowanusnightheron@gmail.com for availability and sales info.

[harborgardenhouse]

Self portraith on an afternoon in late fall on Chandeleur Island. Wide open wild spaces, clear air, and golden light. Enlarge the photo and see if you can find my friend walking on the beach about 400 yards into the scene.  Four of us spent Thanksgiving week out there.

The vegetation is primarily Saltmeadow Hay, Spartina patens, with a little Spartina Alterniflora, goldenrod, and sea oats in the mix. When you change your focus from the large and distant and look down around your feet, you find an astonishing variety of colorful and interesting flowers and plants. The next morning, I was examined by a Peregrine Falcon as I crossed over to fly fish in the surf.

[fotografiacolombiana]

#esparto ? #Juncusramboi; Spartina patens- juncea? #jbb #jardinbotanicodebogota @jardinbotanicodebogota @fernandocruzf @fotografiacolombiana (en Jardin Botanico - Bogotá) https://www.instagram.com/p/Byl7Bt6J9Nz/?igshid=ximcnj454gzb

[iluvalgarve]

Saltmeadow Cordgrass (Spartina patens) from Valter Jacinto | Portugal http://ift.tt/2nh8JAr

[eurekamag--com]

The influence of arsenic chemical form and concentration on Spartina patens and Spartina alterniflora growth a

http://dlvr.it/Pq2zgW

[dendroica]

Salt marsh on Flickr.

With Spartina patens in the foreground.

[aisling-saoirse]

The Last Diked Farmland in NJ - September 17th 2023

A common historic farming typology along the marshes of the East Coast. Famous for cultivating salt hay (spartina patens) or if the conditions are right, typical fresh water crops. This farm is along the Maurice River and was preserved through the grit of twin sisters. The farm is currently under the care of a former hand who is now the owner. Access to the farmland is not public but the farm itself represents a key piece of our agricultural history.

[fotografiacolombiana]

#esparto ? #Juncusramboi; Spartina patens- juncea? #jbb #jardinbotanicodebogota @jardinbotanicodebogota https://www.instagram.com/p/Byl7Bt6J9Nz/?igshid=12ym3jzyb89ho

[iluvalgarve]

Saltmeadow Cordgrass (Spartina patens) from Valter Jacinto | Portugal http://ift.tt/2BBMXLZ

[iluvalgarve]

Saltmeadow Cordgrass (Spartina patens) from Valter Jacinto | Portugal http://ift.tt/2nm1U0t

[dendroica]

Spartina patens on Flickr.