Long-term Objectives:

1. To develop methods to restore and create ideal marshes for dredged-material stabilization, shoreline erosion control and habitat creation for mitigation.

2. To compare structural and functional equivalence of restored and created marshes with natural reference marshes.

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Short-term objectives:

1. Compare amounts of dissolved and particulate soil organic matter in restored and created marshes with natural reference marshes.

2. Determine the relationship of dissolved and particulate Soil organic matter to infaunal species composition and abundance.

3. Investigate the qualitative differences in dissolved organic and natural reference marshes.

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Accomplishments:

1. Methods for creating and restoring vegetation in tidal brackish and salt-water marshes have been developed and implemented at several locations.

2. Above and below ground plant biomass in transplanted marshes is equivalent to natural marshes within 2 to 4 years.

3. Ten to twenty years were required for soil organic matter and number and species diversity of infauna to reach equivalence.

4. Documented the effects of adding organic amendments to the marsh soil on plant growth and numbers of infauna.

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Significance:

Tidal marshes are productive ecosystems that provide life support water quality and hydrologic functions as an integral part of estuarine systems. Application of this research will allow restoration and creation of self-sustaining marshes that a are similar in structure and function to the natural systems they are designed to emulate. This technology makes possible successful mitigation of wetland losses that continue to occur and replacement of wetlands lost in the past.

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Future Plans:

1. Determine the long-term effect of organic amendments to the soil and the relationship of soil organic matter quantity and quality to marsh age and functional development.

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Published by: North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service

Publication Number:

Last Electronic Revision: January 1997 (MSD)

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