Wading Through Research

Blog By: Amanda Richey Check out Contributing Bloggers for Bio The salty is getting saltier . A ll around the world, change s in fresh water flow combined with intruding saltwater is salinizing coastal freshwater and brackish wetlands . Salinization is stressing these transitional habitats , which leads to vegetation loss and with it, the carbon stored in stems, leaves, and root systems. Additionally, l ush, freshwater plant communitie s are being replaced by more salt tolerant species . Th e variation in coastal wetland response to salinization due to water level changes makes the fate of these systems uncertain , as well as the fate of the carbon t hey store. Understanding carbon dynamics in coastal vegetated ecosystems is essential because these ecosystems are globally important carbon sinks, and they are at risk of being lost.     Saltmarsh, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows are all known as “blue carbon” ecosystems because they are effi...

Blog By: Grace McLeod Check out Contributing Bloggers for Bio If you’ve taken a walk through the FIU nature preserve recently, you may have noticed, it looks a little different. The core of the preserve is an endangered pine rockland ecosystem. These forests used to cover what is now the Miami urban area. Today, only a few small patches remain, making it one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. But just protecting these remnant patches from further development isn’t enough; in order to keep them healthy, they need to burn! Pine rocklands are what we call a fire-dependent ecosystem. This means that they depend on regular disturbance by fire to maintain their biodiversity, structure, and ecological function. In the prolonged absence of fire, the upwards of 15 endemic plants found in these forests begin to be outcompeted by less fire-adapted species. In as little as 15-20 years without fire, the forest will transition to an entirely different ecosystem. But as you can imagine,...

Blog By: Grace McLeod Check out  Contributing Bloggers  for Bio Figure 1: Early regeneration just two weeks after a wildfire. Photo: Grace McLeod Standing under the towering pines, it's hard to believe there was a wildfire here just a couple weeks ago. The needles of the lower tree branches are scorched brown, and the smell of wet charcoal sits heavy in the humid air after last night's rain, but the black ground is scattered with tufts of bright green grass almost as tall as my ash-scuffed boots. It’s amazing how fast fire-dependent ecosystems start to recover! The pine forests of the southeastern US have evolved with frequent fire (Figure 1). Many of the species of plants and animals depend on the regular disturbance, and without it, the open pine forests, which are highly endangered and host incredible biodiversity, will start to change to denser, more hardwood dominated systems.  I talk to people all the time who have lived in Florida their whole lives and had no ide...