The Effect of Open Marsh Water Management Practices on the Carbon Balance of Tidal Marshes in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey

The Effect of Open Marsh Water Management Practices on the Carbon Balance of Tidal Marshes in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey PDF Author: Elisabeth Brighton Powell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Carbon sequestration
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
Salt marshes have been modified for mosquito control since the early 1900s. Open marsh water management (OMWM) is a mosquito control technique first applied in New Jersey in the 1950s. It has been extensively used in the mid-Atlantic and also in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Florida, and Louisiana. This practice involves excavation of areas of marsh, constructing shallow ponds to provide habitat for mosquito larvae-eating fish with the goal of reducing mosquito populations. Nearly half of Barnegat Bay, New Jersey’s coastal marshes have been subject to OMWM since 1976, and its effects on ecosystem function are not well understood. Here, we assess the impacts of OMWM on the carbon balance of salt marshes associated with the conversion of intact vegetation to open water ponds. Using a precise object-based image analysis classification technique, we found that over 7,000 ponds, approximately 3% of Barnegat Bay’s coastal marshes, have been constructed for mosquito control. Using state of the art IR technology to examine in-situ greenhouse gas fluxes in Barnegat Bay, we found evidence to suggest that the conversion from intact plants to open water ponds negatively shifted the carbon balance of the salt marsh, both within the footprint of the constructed pond as well as within the area where deposition of sediment has prevented the recolonization of marsh vegetation. We conclude that this management technique has significantly reduced the carbon sequestration capacity of Barnegat Bay’s tidal wetlands.

The Effect of Open Marsh Water Management Practices on the Carbon Balance of Tidal Marshes in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey

The Effect of Open Marsh Water Management Practices on the Carbon Balance of Tidal Marshes in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey PDF Author: Elisabeth Brighton Powell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Carbon sequestration
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
Salt marshes have been modified for mosquito control since the early 1900s. Open marsh water management (OMWM) is a mosquito control technique first applied in New Jersey in the 1950s. It has been extensively used in the mid-Atlantic and also in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Florida, and Louisiana. This practice involves excavation of areas of marsh, constructing shallow ponds to provide habitat for mosquito larvae-eating fish with the goal of reducing mosquito populations. Nearly half of Barnegat Bay, New Jersey’s coastal marshes have been subject to OMWM since 1976, and its effects on ecosystem function are not well understood. Here, we assess the impacts of OMWM on the carbon balance of salt marshes associated with the conversion of intact vegetation to open water ponds. Using a precise object-based image analysis classification technique, we found that over 7,000 ponds, approximately 3% of Barnegat Bay’s coastal marshes, have been constructed for mosquito control. Using state of the art IR technology to examine in-situ greenhouse gas fluxes in Barnegat Bay, we found evidence to suggest that the conversion from intact plants to open water ponds negatively shifted the carbon balance of the salt marsh, both within the footprint of the constructed pond as well as within the area where deposition of sediment has prevented the recolonization of marsh vegetation. We conclude that this management technique has significantly reduced the carbon sequestration capacity of Barnegat Bay’s tidal wetlands.

Open Marsh Water Management

Open Marsh Water Management PDF Author: Thomas Hruby
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mosquitoes
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Book Description
"In 1982 the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the Essex County Mosquito Control Project, and the Manomet Bird Observatory began a research program to adopt OMWM [Open Marsh Water Management] for mosquito control on New England salt marshes. The methods we have developed are presented in this manual for those who would like to practice OMWM in Massachusetts and other areas of the Northeast. Step by step procedures are outlined and several options are described."--Leaf I-1.

Some Effects of Open Marsh Water Management on Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in Two Delaware Salt Marshes

Some Effects of Open Marsh Water Management on Submerged Aquatic Vegetation in Two Delaware Salt Marshes PDF Author: Lynn Alexander Mahaffy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mosquitoes
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Open Marsh Water Management for Open Tidal Marshes in the Northeast

Open Marsh Water Management for Open Tidal Marshes in the Northeast PDF Author: Thomas Hruby
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Salt marsh ecology
Languages : en
Pages :

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Ecology and Management of Tidal MarshesA Model from the Gulf of Mexico

Ecology and Management of Tidal MarshesA Model from the Gulf of Mexico PDF Author: Charles L. Coultas
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9781574440263
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
This is a major compendium of the existing knowledge of the ecology and management of tidal marshes by some of the leading experts in the field. The major theme of the book is the interconnectedness of the marsh, plants, marine organisms, soils and geology, energy and money flow, and legal and management effects on the system. Emphasis is placed throughout on the fact that nature has provided a free service that can either be maintained and enhanced by man or destroyed and forever lost. At a time of declining fisheries, this book points the way to management strategies that are needed to effect improvement.

Hydrology of Two Tidal Marshes in North Carolina where Open-marsh Water Management Modifications Have Been Implemented

Hydrology of Two Tidal Marshes in North Carolina where Open-marsh Water Management Modifications Have Been Implemented PDF Author: B. F. Pope
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Groundwater flow
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Open Marsh Water Management for Tidal Marshes in the Northeast

Open Marsh Water Management for Tidal Marshes in the Northeast PDF Author: Thomas Hruby
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Salt marsh ecology
Languages : en
Pages :

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Hydrology of Two Tidal Marshes in North Carolina where Open-marsh Water Management Modifications Have Been Implemented

Hydrology of Two Tidal Marshes in North Carolina where Open-marsh Water Management Modifications Have Been Implemented PDF Author: Benjamin F. Pope
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Hydrology
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology

Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology PDF Author: M.P. Weinstein
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0792360192
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 862

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Book Description
Tidal salt marshes are viewed as critical habitats for the production of fish and shellfish. As a result, considerable legislation has been promulgated to conserve and protect these habitats, and much of it is in effect today. The relatively young science of ecological engineering has also emerged, and there are now attempts to reverse centuries-old losses by encouraging sound wetland restoration practices. Today, tens of thousands of hectares of degraded or isolated coastal wetlands are being restored worldwide. Whether restored wetlands reach functional equivalency to `natural' systems is a subject of heated debate. Equally debatable is the paradigm that depicts tidal salt marshes as the `great engine' that drives much of the secondary production in coastal waters. This view was questioned in the early 1980s by investigators who noted that total carbon export, on the order of 100 to 200 g m-2 y-1 was of much lower magnitude than originally thought. These authors also recognized that some marshes were either net importers of carbon, or showed no net exchange. Thus, the notion of `outwelling' has become but a single element in an evolving view of marsh function and the link between primary and secondary production. The `revisionist' movement was launched in 1979 when stable isotopic ratios of macrophytes and animal tissues were found to be `mismatched'. Some eighteen years later, the view of marsh function is still undergoing additional modification, and we are slowly unraveling the complexities of biogeochemical cycles, nutrient exchange, and the links between primary producers and the marsh/estuary fauna. Yet, since Teal's seminal paper nearly forty years ago, we are not much closer to understanding how marshes work. If anything, we have learned that the story is far more complicated than originally thought. Despite more than four decades of intense research, we do not yet know how salt marshes function as essential habitat, nor do we know the relative contributions to secondary production, both in situ or in the open waters of the estuary. The theme of this Symposium was to review the status of salt marsh research and revisit the existing paradigm(s) for salt marsh function. Challenge questions were designed to meet the controversy head on: Do marshes support the production of marine transient species? If so, how? Are any of these species marsh obligates? How much of the production takes place in situ versus in open waters of the estuary/coastal zone? Sessions were devoted to reviews of landmark studies, or current findings that advance our knowledge of salt marsh function. A day was also devoted to ecological engineering and wetland restoration papers addressing state-of-the-art methodology and specific case histories. Several challenge papers arguing for and against our ability to restore functional salt marshes led off each session. This volume is intended to serve as a synthesis of our current understanding of the ecological role of salt marshes, and will, it is hoped, pave the way for a new generation of research.

Conservation of Tidal Marshes

Conservation of Tidal Marshes PDF Author: Franklin C. Daiber
Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description