Collaborative Research: Crab Herbivory and the Structure of Southwestern Atlantic Salt Marsh Communities

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Salt marshes are economically and ecologically important habitats that are critical nursery grounds for fisheries; they also serve as natural buffers that protect shorelines from erosion and storm damage, and as biochemical filters on estuarine ecosystems. Moreover, marshes are threatened habitats in many parts of the world. For centuries, humans have damaged marsh systems by draining, ditching and filling them for development and insect control. Consequently, we need to understand how marsh systems work to conserve the structure and function of what marshes remain, as well as restore damaged habitats. Historically, salt marshes have been considered to be ecosystems controlled by physical factors such as temperature, soil salinity and nutrients. Consumers (e.g., animals that eat plants) were not thought to play an important role in regulating salt marsh primary productivity or dynamics. Recent work in Arctic and North American salt marshes, however, has suggested that the role of consumers in salt marshes has been underestimated, particularly in marshes that have been disturbed by human activity. In this project, the PIs will implement a research program to experimentally examine the role of consumers in the Southwestern Atlantic salt marshes of Argentina. By examining the role of consumers in a relatively pristine unstudied marsh system, we hope to shed light on the role that consumers play in pristine salt marshes that have not been disturbed by human activity.The broader impacts of this research include a large international educational impact. Argentinean graduate students will participate in all aspects of this research, with the goal of training local students in salt marsh ecology and conservation biology.