Date of Completion
Spring 5-1-2024
Thesis Advisor(s)
Beth Lawrence
Honors Major
Environmental Science
Disciplines
Natural Resources and Conservation
Abstract
Climate change is altering ecosystems and the services they provide. Salt marsh ecosystems typically protect coastal areas and filter nitrogen out of water, but are rapidly submerging due to rising sea levels and human development that prevents landward migration. Recent restoration efforts to preserve salt marshes attempt to build elevation capital and promote vegetation and animal habitat, but it is unclear how such efforts affect salt marsh biogeochemistry and dynamics of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. To better understand how adding sediment to submerging salt marshes may alter nitrous oxide fluxes, I leveraged a salt marsh hummock creation experiment to test how elevation gradients and planting treatments alter nitrous oxide fluxes on the hummocks. We found that nitrous oxide fluxes did not differ among vegetation treatments, elevational gradients, or the environmental variables salinity, soil pH, and concentrations of NO3- and NH4+. However, we found that vegetation cover differed among nitrous oxide flux categories, with greater plant cover associated with nitrous oxide uptake. Our data suggests that hummock creation does not significantly impact nitrous oxide fluxes in salt marshes, which supports the possibility that hummock creation is a viable salt marsh restoration technique.
Recommended Citation
Doyle, Juliette, "How Does Hummock Creation in Submerging Salt Marshes Alter Nitrous Oxide Fluxes?" (2024). Honors Scholar Theses. 1013.
https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses/1013