Ecology of salt marshes in contrasting tidal environments in Maritime Canada

这笔拨款将支持我们对加拿大海洋盐沼生态的长期研究。盐沼是世界各地沿海岸线的重要特征，其特点是坚韧、耐盐的草，这些草能够在经常被潮汐覆盖的土壤上生长。盐沼是非常多产的生态系统，具有许多关键的环境功能，如储存碳，过滤污染，为多种生物提供温床栖息地，以及保护海岸免受海平面上升或风暴活动的影响。在南方气候条件下，盐沼的生态学已经得到了广泛的研究，但在北方气候条件下，特别是在冬季严寒的地区，盐沼的基本生态过程仍有许多未知之处。我们计划首先描述和表征芬迪湾上游和诺森伯兰海峡几个不同沼泽的动植物物种组成。我们将研究沼泽中草和无脊椎动物之间的相互作用，因为这种相互作用对盐沼景观的结构、范围和物理稳定性有重要影响。我们计划比较和对比两个不同地区的盐沼，因为它们受潮汐环境的影响非常大。诺森伯兰海峡潮汐小，海水清澈，水温季节性变化大，而芬迪湾潮汐大，海水浑浊，水温全年变化小。比较分析是一种有用的研究策略，用于确定解释各种生态过程运作的机制。研究不同的潮汐环境也将提高我们对盐沼如何受到海平面或潮汐振幅变化的影响的理解。我们的研究还将专门调查冬季应力和干扰对芬迪湾和诺森伯兰海峡盐沼群落结构和动态的影响。

This grant will support our long-term research on the ecology of salt marshes in Maritime Canada. Salt marshes are important features of coastal shorelines throughout the world, and are characterized by tough, salt-tolerant grasses which are able to grow on soils that are regularly covered by tidal water. Salt marshes are very productive ecosystems that serve a number of critical environmental functions, such as storing carbon, filtering pollution, providing nursery habitat to a diversity of organisms, and sheltering coasts from sea level rise or storm activity. The ecology of salt marshes has been extensively studied in southern climates, but in northern climates, particularly in areas with severe, icy winters, there is much that remains unknown about the basic ecological processes at work in the salt marsh. We plan to first describe and characterize the composition of plant and animal species in several different marshes located in the upper Bay of Fundy and in the Northumberland Strait. We will examine the interactions between grasses and invertebrate species living in the marshes, as such interactions are known to have important effects on the structure, extent and physical stability of the salt marsh landscape. We are planning to compare and contrast the salt marshes from the two different areas because they are subject to such dramatically different tidal environments. The Northumberland Strait experiences small tides, with clear water and strong seasonal changes in water temperature, while the Bay of Fundy experiences huge tides, with turbid water and much smaller variation in water temperature year-round. Comparative analysis makes a useful research strategy for identifying mechanisms that explain the workings of various ecological processes. Studying the different tidal environments will also improve our understanding of how salt marshes may be affected by changes in sea level or tidal amplitudes. Our research studies will also specifically investigate the effects of winter stresses and disturbances on the structure and dynamics of the salt marsh community in both the Bay of Fundy and Northumberland Strait.