GaDNR Brownbag presentation

The GA Coastal Management Program will present a Brownbag Presentation: Declining below ground plant biomass provides an early warning of marsh vulnerability: implications for salt marsh elevation by Dr. Kyle Runion and Dr. Merryl Alber, with the University of Georgia. The meeting will be held at the Susan Shipman Environmental Learning Center @ GADNR Coastal Regional Headquarters, One Conservation Way, Brunswick, Sept. 25 from noon to 1 p.m.

Researchers at the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long-Term Ecological Research project (GCE-LTER) have been measuring changes in salt marsh above- and belowground biomass for over a decade. Recently, they have advanced landscape assessments through remote-sensing based tools to estimate marsh biomass across the Georgia coast. Runion and Alber will present recent findings and discuss biomass trends across space and time, the surprising differences between above- and belowground biomass, and the implications for the ability of salt marshes to maintain elevation relative to rising sea levels.