Northeastern University was awarded an $895,883 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences under the Geosciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.050). The grant will fund a research project at the Plum Island Long Term Ecological Research site to study the influence of biophysical coupling and cross-scale interactions on salt marsh ecosystems in New England. The project aims to determine how the geographical distribution of organisms responsible for critical ecosystem services is impacted by biological interactions, environmental factors, and oceanographic processes across multiple spatial scales. Key products and services will include repeated surveys of study plots to quantify allochthonous inputs and food web structure; a field experiment manipulating detrital inputs and top-down control by marine fish; a lab experiment on the role of top-down control in key ecosystem processes; and development of a spatially-explicit mathematical model to assess the independent and joint influences of bottom-up and top-down factors on community structure. Insights gained from combining models and experiments will advance understanding of hierarchical salt marsh dynamics and inform local resource management. The award period is from May 1, 2023 to April 30, 2027.
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