06/04/2026
It’s all hands on deck for coastal science!🌾🌊
Last week at UGA Marine Institute (UGAMI) teams from across the country joined forces in the field to support GCE LTER research. Their work focuses on how elevation gradients influence the productivity of our vital salt marshes, as understanding these transitions is key to predicting how these ecosystems will respond to future changes.
Here’s a look at the science in action:
Slide 1: Measuring soil gas exchange. The team uses specialized soil chambers paired with infrared gas analyzers (Licors) to quantify fluxes of CO2, methane, and isotopes directly from the marsh surface.
Slides 2-3: Transitioning the analysis to the canopy level. We use airtight clay seals to attach tree chambers, allowing the same high-precision instrumentation to monitor gas exchange in the forest-marsh transition zone.
Slides 4-5: Validation of real-time data through ground-truthing methods. We use long-term soil collars and plant biomass coverage counts to compare our real-time gas flux data with the actual vegetative growth in each plot.
An exciting and productive start to summer on Sapelo Island! ☀️
