Impact/Purpose:

Ecological restoration is a necessary component of biological conservation and a key survival strategy as the human population hurdles towards 8 billion. However, ecological restoration is an expensive, risky endeavor where lessons learned are often site or species specific. The scope of this study is to develop a restoration approach based on plant traits. Restoration understood from a traits perspective will make its results more general and future outcomes more predictable.

The focus of the study is to develop guidelines for the restoration of inland salt marsh, a globally imperiled plant community. Due to the anatomical and physiological adaptations of the plant species that comprise this community, inland salt marsh is an ideal target community for the remediation of an extensive saline landfill, the Solvay Waste Beds (SWB), adjacent to the Onondaga Lake, NY superfund site. The study objectives are to:

1. Link species traits to relative abundance across abiotic gradients in remnant inland salt marsh communities;
2. Construct inland salt marsh pilot communities at the SWB and link species traits to
1. Species interactions and
2. Transpiration potential of restored communities.

Description:

This research will build upon prior efforts where regression was used to model salt marsh species persistence and productivity along hydrologic and edaphic gradients at the SWB. Upcoming results will enable the optimization of planting combinations at a given salinity level relative to a regression-based, mechanistic understanding of species interactions. The use of plant traits in this analysis will serve as a model for generalizing restoration outcomes and linking restoration outcomes to the broader ecological and evolutionary context of plant trait syndromes.

Record Details:

Record Type:PROJECT( ABSTRACT )

Start Date:09/01/2007

Completion Date:06/01/2009

Record ID: 184468

Show Additional Record Data

Related Organizations:

Role :OWNER

Organization Name :STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENC

Mailing Address :750 East Adams Street

Citation :Syracuse

State :NY

Zip Code :13210

Project Information:

Approach :

Vegetation composition will be sampled along soil salinity gradients at remnant inland salt marsh communities in western New York. Water level, soil salinity and leaf trait (leaf area, mass, nutritional status) data will be collected and used to predict plant species abundances. Survivorship, growth, relative yield, and community level transpiration will be assessed on mixed and monoculture plots replicated across a salinity gradient at the SWB. Trait data collected on these plants will be related to species and community level performance.

Cost :$.00

Research Component :Academic Fellowships

Approach :

Vegetation composition will be sampled along soil salinity gradients at remnant inland salt marsh communities in western New York. Water level, soil salinity and leaf trait (leaf area, mass, nutritional status) data will be collected and used to predict plant species abundances. Survivorship, growth, relative yield, and community level transpiration will be assessed on mixed and monoculture plots replicated across a salinity gradient at the SWB. Trait data collected on these plants will be related to species and community level performance.

Cost :$.00

Research Component :Fellowship - Terrestrial Systems Ecology

Approach :

Vegetation composition will be sampled along soil salinity gradients at remnant inland salt marsh communities in western New York. Water level, soil salinity and leaf trait (leaf area, mass, nutritional status) data will be collected and used to predict plant species abundances. Survivorship, growth, relative yield, and community level transpiration will be assessed on mixed and monoculture plots replicated across a salinity gradient at the SWB. Trait data collected on these plants will be related to species and community level performance.

Cost :$.00

Research Component :Ecological Assessment

Project IDs:

ID Code :F07F10155

Project type :Fellowship