New England salt marshes losing diversity
By Peter Lord A new study by researchers at Brown University finds that climate change is reducing the diversity of plants in New England salt marshes by causing a decline in small, flowering plants and allowing the spread of salt marsh grasses such as Spartina patens. The study, called “Experimental warming causes rapid loss of plant diversity in New England salt marshes,” was published in the latest edition of the journal Ecology Letters and has been widely distributed on academic Web sites. The three years of research focused on salt marshes at Nag Creek on Prudence Island, and Little River and Drake`s Island in Maine. The paper featured two words that are much more popular with biologists than the public — forbs and pannes. Forbs are herbaceous, flowering plants. Some examples are bachelor`s buttons, clover and milkweed. Pannes are waterlogged depressions in salt marshes. … Gedan concluded that warming “had dramatic effects on plant composition in New England salt marshes. The decline in cover of all forb panne species, regardless of species identity, was remarkably uniform, indicating that this diverse assemblage responds to temperature change as a zone, rather than according to species-specific climate preferences.” What`s more, she said, the decline in forb panne cover in control plots shows that climate change is already reducing panne habitat in southern New England. …
