Local Salt Marsh Investigations
The rocky New England shoreline is periodically interrupted by barrier-beach sand dunes. Occasionally, vast salt marshes exist behind this protective cover. Salt marshes are important ecological habitats in terms of their productivity, biodiversity, and role in coastal erosion and filtration processes. During the shore component, students will investigate the flora, fauna, and physio-chemical characteristics of several local salt marshes. They will hone their skills of observation, hypothesis formation, and field sampling design. Past student investigations include a geological mapping survey of Little Sippewissett marsh, determining the exchange of chemical properties between Oyster Pond and Vineyard Sound, and tracking the change in benthic invertebrate assemblages in relation to sediment grain size and exposure to tides in Waquoit Bay. Other projects identified resident fish and plankton communities and examined how the abundance of these species varied across tidal cycles. All of this accumulated data has begun to highlight the importance of the surrounding watershed and changes in local land use on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of these important habitats.