The Salmon River estuary has been a key site for studies of estuarine ecosystem recovery for over three decades. Our project continues the work of others in examining whether biological communities can be restored in previously diked tidal marshes. A staggered pattern of dike removal in three of the marshes, plus the presence of a never-diked marsh, allows us to make comparisons of vegetation-based and benthic invertebrate communities among marshes in different recovery stages and with the reference marsh. We can also directly examine changes over time in individual marshes by comparing our results to previous datasets. We also plan to explore interannual variability and the role of abiotic factors in influencing the composition of the invertebrate communities. A unique aspect of this project is the inclusion of biology majors in all aspects of the research. Collection of invertebrates with insect fallout traps and benthic cores, along with sample sorting, is integrated into the Principal Investigator’s upper-division Marine Ecology course. Advanced undergraduates serve as field team leaders. Some students also conduct independent research linked to the project.
Results/Conclusions
This approach offers the P.I. a way to engage in field and lab-intensive research while fulfilling her primary mission of undergraduate education. Students provide the field support necessary for simultaneous sample collection in all four tidal marshes. In turn, these undergraduates engage in authentic ecological research. An unanticipated effect of undergraduate involvement has been the high quality of creative contributions by field team leaders. They played an integral role in the project’s first year, constructing and troubleshooting field equipment as well as developing and implementing the logistics needed to sample the most remote site. Moreover, the project provided them with a type of leadership experience often not available even at the graduate level. The opportunity to develop and implement a project of this scope helped them to grasp the inner workings of scientific research in a way that a traditional class-based or independent project could not do. This experience has also changed the way they view and interpret the scientific literature and course material. Finally, undergraduate participants became stewards of the Salmon River estuary, carefully determining how to minimize the impact of sample collection on the estuarine ecosystem as well as volunteering to participate in summer sampling efforts. Several students stated that this was now “their estuary” and they had a vested interest in continued monitoring of its recovery.