Marshes Dieing, story in Hartford Courant.

[gdn443]

Conn. Scientists Investigate Marsh Die-Off7:31 AM EDT, June 27, 2006
By Associated Press MADISON, Conn. -- Something is killing New England's salt marshes, and scientists are trying to figure out how large the problem is, and how to stop it. Parts of the marshes, normally teeming with cord grass, fish and birds have turned mud brown and bare of life except for fiddler crabs.

"No one recalls seeing anything like this," Ron Rozsa, coastal ecologist with Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection, told the Day of New London as he surveyed a section of the Oyster River salt marsh in Old Saybrook. "We're talking about a crime scene investigation some forensic ecology, if you will."

[url "http://clk.atdmt.com/CAC/go/ctnwxjjb0010000007cac/direct/01/"][/url][url "http://clk.atdmt.com/CAC/go/ctnwxjjb0010000007cac/direct/01/"][/url][url "http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/trb.courant/news/natworld/wire;ptype=s;rg=ur;ref=courantcom;tile=2;sz=300x250;ord=74328026"][/url]Scientists are calling the mysterious phenomenon sudden wetlands dieback.

The marshes make up abut 10,000 acres along Connecticut's Long Island Sound coast.

They are considered the foundation of the marine food chain and buffer the shoreline against flooding and storms. A dieback has also been seen in brackish marshes, which have lower salinity and cover about 3,000 acres in the state.

But the problem is not limited to Connecticut. Dieback has been reported in all five of the coastal New England states and is most evident in the marshes of Cape Cod.

Dieback sites have also been documented on Long Island, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas and Louisiana where scientists call it brown marsh. It appears to have begun about seven years ago, occurring in isolated but, in some cases, relatively large patches, biologists say.

The dieback is causing erosion problems along the shore.

On healthy salt marshes, the smooth cord grass grows in a belt right up to water's edge, securing the marsh.

The death of the grasses effectively means that section of marsh ceases to exist as a productive habitat.

In a dieback site, irregular margins of gray-brown marsh soils are exposed, cut away by tides and waves that wash in during storms, forming terraced walls, trenches and caves in the creek banks.

"We don't know what's causing it, and we don't know how to stop it. Is it a disease, or a response to a combination of factors? We want to get a handle on what this thing is," said Susan Adamowicz, a land management research and demonstration biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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[Dryrod]

[font "Poor Richard"][green][size 3]Hi there gdn443 and thanks for the informative post. Just wanted to let you know that I removed the two advertising inserts from your your post. I am sure that you can appreciate it that our paid advertisers wouldn't take too kindly to our members getting free ads.[/size][/green][/font]
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[gdn443]

Thanks dryrod, I couldn't figure out how to do it. I'm not to good with the box.
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[davetclown]

to me this sound much like a problem of over farming.

over targeting a migrating species or food of a migrating species in other regeons including out in the open ocean can remove an animal that would normaly cultivate natural habitats such as marches.

there is a reason it is called an eco system. hundreds if not thousands of species depend directly or indirectly on the existing of other species.

even environment changes can be devistating to natural regeons, especialy brackash areas in the event of global worming or cooling. global worming can raise ocean levels which can cause higher salt content in an area or heavyer rains can wash out salt concentration due to continued or prolonged fresh water over flows.

then there is the dreded chemical contamination problem from house hold and industrial waist being dumped in to our waterways. chemicals have a tendancy to concentrate in low flow area and can inturn for the lack of a better term "BLEACH" out ares devoiding it of life except for those animals that can adapt to the new environment.

in any case these earthen rashes as much the same with human rashes are usualy a signal that something has gone arye and drastic measures are needed to enoculate the problem. in some cases grafting of new life in an area that is capeable of survival in the newly generated environment.

food of thought, if you were to remove something as anoying as the misqueto in an area can cause drastic problems in a local eco system. for example removing the misqueto entiraly from a small pond can cause starvation in a number of sepcies all the way from the shrimp and minnows that feed upon the larva stage of the misqueto to the larger fish that feed upon the shrimp and minnows wich will drive away misqueto eating animails such as frogs birds, the lack of larger fish in the pond will drive away birds and mamals like kingfishers wolves bears who feed upon them.

with this being said one can see the problem is much larger than origanaly reported.

I would be interested in hearing the end of their study and what their recomendations to remidy the problem will be...
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