When you visit the #saltmarsh @pie-lter.bsky.social in spring, you can see large slabs of #sediment on the marsh platform, which have been deposited there over the winter by ice rafting: ice freezing to the mudflat, and the frozen mud being carried around by winds and tides onto the marsh (April 4).

It's always interesting to see the salt marsh plants that sprout first in the spring, April 4, @pie-lter.bsky.social.

Visiting the #mangroves in Santa Catalina on the Pacific Coast of Panama in March 2025, I was struck by high levels of localized leaf #herbivory. Does anyone know what organism(s) are responsible?

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...

How do you get all the dried biomass from 36 #saltmarsh plant mesocosms home from a field site hundreds of miles away (along with with frozen water samples and sediment)? A lot of drying, sorting into paper bags, packing into duffels and coolers, and schlepping through airports..., but they made it!

Check out the amazing density of snails on the Spartina alterniflora #saltmarsh plants at North Inlet-Winyah Bay NERR. (I think that they are Littoraria irrorata, but chime in if you have a better id!)

In November 2024, after two growing seasons of treatments, you can really see the effect of #nitrogen fertilization in our field plots at North Inlet-Winyah Bay, SC! We are testing the effect of ammonium vs. nitrate inputs on #saltmarsh plant and microbe responses.

#Saltmarshes bury a lot of #carbon in place, but also excess, dead Spartina plant matter is carried away by wind and tides and can accumulate elsewhere, episodically loading sites like this marsh-upland edge with marsh wrack (North Inlet-Winyah Bay NERR, September 2024).

In summer 2024 we collected the Spartina alterniflora plants and sediment from the marsh organs we used in our field experiment on the effects of different forms of nitrogen fertilization on #saltmarsh #carbon and #nitrogen cycling, @pie-lter.bsky.social and at North Inlet-Winyah Bay NERR.

We got a fascinating tour of the oyster-rearing process right in the Rowley River by our neighbors at the Great Marsh Shellfish Co. ( www.thegreatmarshshellfishco.com ) in September 2024 @pie-lter.bsky.social. They were the tastiest things I've ever eaten pulled right out out of a salt marsh!

Check out the incredible density of fiddler crabs in the #saltmarsh at North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Reserve, where colleagues and I were measuring nitrogen cycling in June 2024.

Fallen asleep on the job? Dropped a contact lens? No, in fact estimating aboveground biomass in the #saltmarsh by measuring every shoot in a 25 cm x 25 cm plot means hours with your face in the grass (while perched precariously on a boardwalk plank or milk crate platform) @pie-lter.bsky.social.

Since 2023, we (@bowenlab.bsky.social, @randallhughes.bsky.social) have been testing how nitrogen inputs affect #saltmarsh plants, microbes, and carbon and nitrogen cycling, @pie-lter.bsky.social in Massachusetts and at North Inlet Winyah Bay NERR in South Carolina.

During National Estuaries Week, we're reflecting on our blue carbon work & the role of coastal ecosystems in storing carbon. Check out our blog with Dr. Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social: buff.ly/8qHDj5A #NationalEstuariesWeek #CommunicationSkills #SciComm #SciPol #StrategicMessaging

When our measurements in the #saltmarsh @pie-lter.bsky.social involve hanging out on the boardwalk over high tide, we get to see a whole other side of the environment, from the marsh organs being overtopped by the tide to egrets (and the midges...) waiting at the edge of the water to feed.

How do we measure #denitrification in our #saltmarsh ammonium and nitrate treatment plots at @pie-lter.bsky.social? Anne Giblin and Jane Tucker from @mblscience.bsky.social bring the lab into the field for this in situ "push-pull" denitrification measurement.

In April 2024, 1 year after planting these Spartina alterniflora in the #saltmarsh organs at North Inlet, they were going strong! We simulated different marsh elevations in three rows of pipes, and randomly assigned each plant a #nitrogen treatment. Stephanie and Karen survey the plants' progress.

Word of the Day: estuary www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/l...

news.northeastern.edu/2025/06/05/s... #saltmarsh @bowenlab.bsky.social

Putting Science Engagement into Practice with Dr. Matthew Costa | COMPASS www.compassscicomm.org/putting-scie...

At our #saltmarsh field plots @pie-lter.bsky.social and North-Inlet-Winyah Bay, we are measuring Spartina alterniflora biomass and CO2 uptake/release using clear plastic chambers attached to a CO2 analyzer (and a precariously perched laptop!). Thanks Stephanie, Camille, and Pooja (September 2023)!

We tend to put #saltmarshes and the #rockyintertidal into very different ecosystem boxes, but here's an example of salt marsh plants (Spartina alterniflora) growing in a patch of shallow peat among sand and gravel on the rocky shore in Essex County, MA (August 2023).

This particular spot in the #rockyintertidal environment in Essex County, MA, upon closer inspection, was crawling with springtails! Seashore springtails (Anurida maritima) are known to aggregate by use of a pheromone that helps them find each other. August 2023.

By August 2023 the #Spartina alterniflora plants we had planted in our marsh organs @pie-lter.bsky.social had grown to a healthy size! The different elevations of the marsh organ simulate the effects of varying sea level scenarios. Also, check out all those mud snails (Ilyanassa obsoleta?)!

April in the salt marsh at @pie-lter.bsky.social means that the Spartina alterniflora is sending up new shoots! See the little green new leaves among the brown of the previous year's dead biomass. This #saltmarsh plant's rhizomes overwinter underground but send up new leaves each spring. Apr 2023

Oregon Public Broadcasting briefly covered our recent #bluecarbon research on the Pacific coast www.opb.org/article/2025...

xkcd.com/3081/ #Resist

www.opb.org/article/2025... Did you know about the large carbon-burial capacity of the Sitka spruce swamps of the Pacific Northwest? Their carbon stocks, along with those of other coastal #bluecarbon ecosystems, are reported in our recent paper: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/... .

See @bowenlab.bsky.social Bowen lab undergrad intern Luke Bagdonas demonstrating our #saltmarsh organ set-up in North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in April 2023. (Part 1 of 2)

Two years ago, we planted our greenhouse-reared Spartina alterniflora plants into these marsh organs. A marsh organ is a set of PVC pipes at different elevations (they look a little like a pipe organ!). Here are Luke and Stephanie out there planting, at North Inlet and @pie-lter.bsky.social.

On this #EarthDay, it's worth remembering why, in 1970, it was created (smog-choked cities, toxic waste/sewage dumping, and yes, a burning river) and importantly, what followed, like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, helping to preserve scenes like this. We are stewards, not just users. 💚💙🌎

Interested in what we can learn from microbes in coastal restoration efforts? Submit an abstract to our session for @cerfscience.bsky.social in Nov: "Microscopic to Mighty: Harnessing Microbial Ecology for Restoration Success", co-led by the fabulous @ellewoodsofmyco.bsky.social! #CERF2025

Two years ago this month, we set out on the "Not all Nitrogen" study on how different forms of nitrogen inputs affect Spartina alterniflora salt marsh plants, their associated microbes, and the processes of carbon sequestration and marsh accretion. @bowenlab.bsky.social @randallhughes.bsky.social

Check out our new paper on #bluecarbon, led by my colleague @janousekwild.bsky.social, "Blue carbon stocks along the Pacific coast of North America are mainly driven by local rather than regional factors." agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/... @agu.org

This is revolting, not only because of the irreplaceable long-term #data collection (such as at Mauna Loa, HI) or archiving (in Ashville, NC) supported by NOAA, but the careers of scientists (real people) dedicated to these and other projects in service to the nation. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/c...

Red #mangroves grow with their prop roots so intertwined that, when a tall tree falls, it can create a real tangle of smaller trees torn down as well. The generation of these open patches makes room for the recruitment of seedlings in these dynamic forests. Bocas del Toro, Panama, February 2023.

Check out the distribution of leaf litter, redistributed by the tides, at the high tide line in the #mangroves of Bocas del Toro, Panama. February 2023

In February 2023 I had the pleasure to teach Tropical Marine Ecosystems for the @northeasternu.bsky.social Three Seas program, and one of the most rewarding parts of that trip was the chance to expose a new generation of marine science students to the magical #mangrove #ecosystems of Bocas del Toro.

Check out the larval shrimp and sulfate-reducing bacteria (making the pinkish color on the leaf litter) in these #mangroves in Bocas del Toro. These #ecosystems support productive food webs and biogeochemical cycling. February 2023.

In January 2023, I had my first trip to the Winyah Bay-North Inlet research reserve, and had the pleasure to explore the #saltmarshes and to work with several fantastic colleagues from @northeasternu.bsky.social and @sc.edu on Spartina alterniflora nitrogen uptake.

Under a clear blue sky in November 2022, colleagues and I started studying the response of salt marsh plants to different forms of #nitrogen inputs, beginning by collecting seeds of Spartina alterniflora along a field plot transect at our study site @pie-lter.bsky.social. @bowenlab.bsky.social