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

盐沼是经济和生态上重要的栖息地，是渔业的关键苗圃;它们也是保护海岸线免受侵蚀和风暴破坏的天然缓冲区，并作为河口生态系统的生物化学过滤器。 此外，在世界许多地方，沼泽地是受到威胁的生境。 几个世纪以来，人类为了发展和控制昆虫，通过排水、开沟和填埋沼泽来破坏沼泽系统。因此，我们需要了解沼泽系统如何工作，以保护沼泽的结构和功能，以及恢复受损的栖息地。历史上，盐沼一直被认为是受温度、土壤盐度和养分等物理因素控制的生态系统。消费者（例如，以植物为食的动物）被认为在调节盐沼初级生产力或动态方面不起重要作用。 然而，最近在北极和北美盐沼的研究表明，消费者在盐沼中的作用被低估了，特别是在受到人类活动干扰的沼泽中。在这个项目中，PI将实施一项研究计划，以实验方式研究消费者在阿根廷西南大西洋盐沼中的作用。通过研究消费者在一个相对原始的未研究的沼泽系统中的作用，我们希望阐明消费者在未被人类活动干扰的原始盐沼中所扮演的角色，这项研究的更广泛的影响包括巨大的国际教育影响。阿根廷研究生将参与这项研究的各个方面，目的是培训当地学生掌握盐沼生态学和保护生物学。

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.