Shoreline processes and establishment ofPhragmites australisin a coastal plain estuary
✍ Scribed by Jonathan D. Phillips
- Book ID
- 104617870
- Publisher
- Springer Netherlands
- Year
- 1987
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 456 KB
- Volume
- 71
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1385-0237
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Phragmites australis occurs extensively along undisturbed salt-marsh shorelines of Delaware Bay. The species has been considered indicative of human disturbance when found in estuarine marshes in the USA. It is suggested that geomorphic processes associated with coastal submergence provide an analog of human disturbances which can enable Phragmites australis to become established naturally. Deposition of sand bodies (or rafted debris) can suppress existing vegetation and allow Phragmites to become established. Subsequently, even if the sand or debris is moved, erosional truncation of the intertidal profile can inhibit recolonization by the original dominant shoreline species, Spartina alterniflora. Nomenclature follows G. M. Silberhorn 1982. Common plants of the Mid-Atlantic coast.