Grantee Research Project Results
Community Interactions That Affect Nutrient Dynamics in Salt Marshes: Lessons for Habitat Restoration
EPA Grant Number: U915399Title: Community Interactions That Affect Nutrient Dynamics in Salt Marshes: Lessons for Habitat Restoration
Investigators: Boyer, Katharyn E.
Institution: University of California - Los Angeles
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: September 1, 1998 through September 1, 2001
Project Amount: $77,522
RFA: STAR Graduate Fellowships (1998) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Academic Fellowships , Ecological Indicators/Assessment/Restoration , Fellowship - Ecology
Objective:
The objectives of this research project are to: (1) gain an understanding of how complex community relationships in coastal salt marshes affect nutrient dynamics; and (2) use this understanding to improve habitat restoration and pollution management.
Approach:
I am examining the interactions of four groups of organisms in the low to midintertidal zone of southern California salt marshes: vascular plants, macroalgae, microalgae, and benthic invertebrates. In a series of field and greenhouse experiments, I am assessing the relative importance of representatives within these groups on nutrient partitioning within the biotic and abiotic compartments of the community. Experiments include the use of isotope labeling techniques to trace the fate of nutrients in the systems. Numerical approximation techniques will be used to combine the different components of salt marsh nutrient cycling in a simulation model.
Supplemental Keywords:
fellowship, salt marsh, restoration, macroalgae, microalgae, California, CA, invertebrate, sediment, community ecology, benthic invertebrates, vascular plants, habitat restoration, pollution management, nutrient partitioning, biotic, abiotic, isotope labeling, nutrients., RFA, Scientific Discipline, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Ecology, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, Ecosystem Protection, exploratory research environmental biology, Environmental Chemistry, Chemistry, Ecological Effects - Environmental Exposure & Risk, Biochemistry, Ecology and Ecosystems, Ecological Indicators, nutrient dynamics, stess response, salt marshes, Enteromorpha intestinalis, structuring ecological communities, Cerithidea californica (California horn snail), Salicornia virginica (pickleweed), ecological communities, competition in ecological communities, Pachygrapsus crassipes (lined shore crab)Progress and Final Reports:
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.