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Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass

What were we doing before Deepwater Horizon?

by Randall June 29, 2010
by Randall June 29, 2010 3 comments
Dr. Randall Hughes FSU Coastal & Marine Lab

Watch the “snail experiment.”
Snails in the marsh

Periwinkle snails climbing on cordgrass

IGOR chip- biodiversity 150One of the marsh animals that we have been studying for the last year (in the absence of oil) is the marsh periwinkle, Littoraria irrorata. This snail is very abundant in many marshes and is particularly visible at high tide when it climbs the plant stems to get out of the water and away from its predators, primarily crown conchs and blue crabs.

While hanging out on the cordgrass stems, the snails will often create grazing scars that look much like a razor blade cut through the grass. Even though they don’t remove much plant tissue, they can have a big impact – fungus colonizes their grazing scars, and if the fungus becomes abundant enough, it can kill the entire plant, leading to marsh loss. (See the excellent work done by Brian Silliman at UF on this topic.)

One of the interesting aspects of many Panhandle marshes is that needlerush, a taller plant than cordgrass that usually occurs closer to land, can grow side-by-side with cordgrass at the water’s edge.

When needlerush is there, lots of snails climb on it despite the fact that they don’t eat it. (We think they like needlerush because it is taller and provides a better escape from predators than cordgrass.)

Because we noticed that the cordgrass that occurs with needlerush is taller and healthier than cordgrass that occurs in patches by itself, we are currently conducting an experiment to see if this pattern is due to the snails spending less time on cordgrass when needlerush is around. Each experimental plot is surrounded by a cage that serves to keep snails either in or out so that we can test their effects on the plants. You may notice the snails are very fashionable – we ‘tag’ them with nail polish so that we can differentiate the ones we put in the cages from ones that get in from the surrounding marsh. Some cages contain cordgrass only, whereas others contain a mix of needlerush and cordgrass. Finally, in some of the cages we have clipped the above-ground portions of all of the neighboring plants – this allows us to see whether the cordgrass simply prefers the environment that needlerush grows in, or if the needlerush must be present for the cordgrass to benefit.

As long as our experiment isn’t prematurely interrupted by oil, then we should have an answer to our question by the end of the summer!

Randall’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation. The song used in the video is Florida Breeze, by Craig Reeder.

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biodiversityblue crabcoastal ecologycordgrassexperimentsFlorida State Universityforgotten coastFSU Coastal and Marine Labmarine biologymarine ecologyNational Science FoundationNSFperiwinkle snailssalt marshsciencesmooth cordgrasssnail experimentsnailsspartina alternifloraSt. Joe BaySt. Joseph Bay
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Randall

Dr. Randall Hughes is an ecologist and marine biologist focusing on the causes and consequences of species and genetic diversity in coastal systems. She has conducted experimental work on plants and animals in seagrasses, salt marshes, oyster reefs, and kelp forests. The common thread throughout these activities is a long-standing interest in generating information that can enhance the effectiveness of conservation and management decisions.

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3 comments

This is Science, Too | December 2, 2010 - 10:54 pm

[…] (i.e. some have short grass, some have long grass, some have a combination of grasses, etc.  The snail experiment is a good example).  The oval with the squares in it represents Baymouth Bar, split into regions. […]

Return to the field | March 15, 2011 - 1:57 pm

[…] and experiments for this summer. To clear some room in our calendar, we’re going to end the snail experiment that has been running for almost a year in St. Joe Bay. It has largely run its course – the cages […]

WFSU | Public Media, PBS, and NPR for Northern Florida and Southern Georgia July 19, 2011 - 2:34 pm

[…] the last year!  And finally for this blog, because the beginning of the snail experiment was the first thing we documented last summer when we started this project with WFSU.  It’s nice to come full […]

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