Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology

In 1968 when I forsook horticulture and plant physiology to try, with the help of Sea Grant funds, wetland ecology, it didn’t take long to discover a slim volume published in 1959 by the University of Georgia and edited by R. A. Ragotzkie, L. R. Pomeroy, J. M. Teal, and D. C. Scott, entitled “Proceedings of the Salt Marsh Conference” held in 1958 at the Marine Institute, Sapelo Island, Ga. Now forty years later, the Sapelo Island conference has been the major intellectual impetus, and another Sea Grant Program the major backer, of another symposium, the “International Symposium: Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology”. This one re-examines the ideas of that first conference, ideas that stimulated four decades of research and led to major legislation in the United States to conserve coastal wetlands. It is dedicated, appropriately, to two then young scientists – Eugene P. Odum and John M. Teal – whose inspiration has been the starting place for a generation of coastal wetland and estuarine research. I do not mean to suggest that wetland research started at Sapelo Island. In 1899 H. C. Cowles described successional processes in Lake Michigan freshwater marsh ponds. There is a large and valuable early literature about northern bogs, most of it from Europe and the former USSR, although Eville Gorham and R. L. Lindeman made significant contributions to the American literature before 1960. V. J.

Table of Contents:
Retrospective on the Salt Marsh Paradigm.- Tidal Marshes as Outwelling/Pulsing Systems.- Salt Marsh Values: Retrospection from the end of the Century.- Sources and Patterns of Production.- Role of Salt Marshes as Part of Coastal Landscapes.- Spatial Variation in Process and Pattern in Salt Marsh Plant Communities in Eastern North America.- Eco-Physiological Controls on the Productivity of Spartina Alterniflora Loisel.- Community Structure and Functional Dynamics of Benthic Microalgae in Salt Marshes.- Structure and Productivity of Microtidal Mediterranean Coastal Marshes.- Development and Structure of Salt Marshes: Community Patterns in Time and Space.- Fate of Production within Marsh Food Webs.- Microbial Secondary Production from Salt Marsh-Grass Shoots, and Its Known and Potential Fates.- Trophic Complexity Between Producers and Invertebrate Consumers in Salt Marshes.- Trophic Linkages in Marshes: Ontogenetic Changes in Diet for Young-of-the-Year Mummichog, Fundulus Heteroclitus.- Habitat Value: Food and/or Refuge.- Factors Influencing Habitat Selection in Fishes with a Review of Marsh Ecosystems.- Salt Marsh Ecoscapes and Production Transfers by Estuarine Nekton in the Southeastern United States.- Salt Marsh Linkages to Productivity of Penaeid Shrimps and Blue Crabs in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.- Ecophysiological Determinants of Secondary Production in Salt Marshes: A Simulation Study.- Salt Marsh Ecosystem Support of Marine Transient Species.- Biogeochemical Processes.- Benthic-Pelagic Coupling in Marsh-Estuarine Ecosystems.- Twenty More Years of Marsh and Estuarine Flux Studies: Revisiting Nixon (1980).- The Role of Oligohaline Marshes in Estuarine Nutrient Cycling.- Molecular Tools for Studying Biogeochemical Cycling in Salt Marshes.- Nitrogen and Vegetation Dynamics in European Salt Marshes.- Modelling Nutrient and Energy Flux.- A Stable Isotope Model Approach to Estimating the Contribution of Organic Matter from Marshes to Estuaries.- Types of Salt Marsh Edge and Export of Trophic Energy from Marshes to Deeper Habitats.- Silicon is the Link between Tidal Marshes and Estuarine Fisheries: A New Paradigm.- Tidal Marsh Restoration: Fact or Fiction?.- Self-Design Applied to Coastal Restoration.- Functional Equivalency of Restored and Natural Salt Marshes.- Organic and Inorganic Contributions to Vertical Accretion in Salt Marsh Sediments.- Landscape Structure and Scale Constraints on Restoring Estuarine Wetlands for Pacific Coast Juvenile Fishes.- Ecological Engineering of Restored Marshes.- The Role of Pulsing Events in the Functioning of Coastal Barriers and Wetlands: Implications for Human Impact, Management and the Response to Sea Level Rise.- Influences of Vegetation and Abiotic Environmental Factors on Salt Marsh Invertebrates.- Measuring Function of Restored Tidal Marshes.- The Health and Long Term Stability of Natural and Restored Marshes in Chesapeake Bay.- Soil Organic Matter (SOM) Effects on Infaunal Community Structure in Restored and Created Tidal Marshes.- Initial Response of Fishes to Marsh Restoration at a Former Salt Hay Farm Bordering Delaware Bay.- Success Criteria for Tidal Marsh Restoration.- Catastrophes, Near-Catastrophes and the Bounds of Expectation: Success Criteria for Macroscale Marsh Restoration.- References is a Moving Target in Sea-Level Controlled Wetlands.- Linking the Success of Phragmites to the Alteration of Ecosystem Nutrient Cycles.- Restoration of Salt and Brackish Tidelands in Southern New England.

Review :
`On balance this book will be a landmark for its intended audience, North American salt marsh ecosystem ecologist and a valuable resource for students and ecologists from other disciplines interested in learning about salt marsh ecology. ...I highly recommend this book to tidal marsh scientist and graduate students because it presently provides the best and the most up to date single source of information on tidal marsh ecology.' Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. `The book contains a tremendous amount of up to date information on salt marsh ecology and its an excellent reference for those interested in ecosystem-level processes in these systems ' Ecological Engineering 18:399-400 (2002)