Colleagues, We encourage you to consider submitting an abstract to session 042, functioning of salt marsh and mangrove wetland ecosystems across ecological and spatial scales, at the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting, May 18-23, in Portland. The deadline for submitting an abstract is February 7th.
Cheers, Amanda Spivak and Stefan Sievert 042 - Functioning of salt marsh and mangrove wetland ecosystems across ecological and spatial scales Intertidal wetlands are highly productive and biogeochemically dynamic and diverse ecosystems at the interface of marine and terrestrial environments. As such, these systems play important roles in coastal carbon budgets and in transforming organic and inorganic nutrients. However, salt marsh and mangrove habitats are increasingly stressed by excess nutrient loading, changing community composition and trophic interactions, sea level rise, increasing temperatures, and shifting precipitation patterns, among other disturbances. In this session, we invite studies that examine geochemical, microbial, trophic, and plant community dynamics in salt marsh and mangrove wetlands, with an emphasis on integrating processes across ecological and spatial scales. Studies focused on mechanistic interactions between microbes, plants, animals, and geochemical cycles will be informative in generating a holistic understanding of ecosystem functioning. This session will also focus on salt marsh and mangrove ecosystem responses to local- and landscape-level stressors in order to compare how coastal wetlands function across latitudinal and plant composition gradients. Finally, we welcome studies that examine salt marsh and mangrove ecosystem dynamics in a regional context.
