Salt Marsh Plant Interactions

As part of my PhD thesis at UCSC, I am conducting a group of experiments exploring different methods of enhancing revegetation at Elkhorn Slough’s Hester Marsh restoration site.

I am interested interaction outcomes of pickleweed (Salicornia pacifica) and other marsh natives (Frankenia salina, Distichlis spicata, Jaumea carnosa, Spergularia marina), and how this might impact revegetation during restoration.

I’m also interested in potential soil interactions influencing greenhouse transplant success, but also what microbes might exist within marsh soils influencing plant growth.

A lot of my thesis work is based in succession and interaction theory, and hopes to explore how marshes establish after large disturbances.

I am funded by the generous support of the NSF GRFP, UCSC’s Kenneth S. Norris Center, and UCSC’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department.