Restoration and Connectivityso caHistorically, the mid-Atlantic had vast expanses of low-lying forests with extensive freshwater wetlands and streams. Much of this land has been converted to farming over the last several hundred years. Ongoing pressures include continued farming and the growth of suburban developments. In recognition of the need for new approaches to systematically monitor and assess hydrologic conditions, wetland/stream ecosystem functions, and their impact on water quality, Palmer and colleagues have work on-going in the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Our work focuses on so-called Geographically Isolated Wetlands on the Delmarva peninsula of the east coast U.S. where we are quantifying the patterns of connectivity of restored, natural, and agricultural wetlands to perennial stream networks. Among other differences, these three classes of wetlands vary in the duration and patterns of their connectivity as well as the amount and composition of dissolved organic matter flowing from them. This research includes using remotely sensed data, particularly radar and lidar, and extensive field sampling and experimentation, to quantify a variety of ecological functions in depressional wetlands that connect to stream networks under certain hydrologic conditions. |
Wetlands and Carbonetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems on earth yet they play extremely valuable roles in global elemental cycling. As transition points in the landscape between the terrestrial and aquatic realms, they are well known as sources of Carbon (C) production and biomass accumulation, as well as sinks of C received from the surrounding terrestrial environments. Despite their potential importance to understanding C fluxes they have not been adequately integrated into global scale terrestrial C budgets or into inland water C budgets.
The Palmer lab has multilple C projects on going. 1) Understanding carbon gas fluxes, wetland carbon stocks, and dissolved organic matter concentration and composition across a series of depressional wetlands on Maryland's easter shore (Delmarva Peninsula). An array of flow towers situated in restored, agricultural wetland, and natural wetlands have been sampling since 2017. This involves a close collaboration with Dr. Greg McCarty and colleagues at USDA-ARS in Beltsville, MD. This work is complemented with various student projects focused on soil carbon, DOM, and drivers of methane fluxes. 2) In an NSF collaboration with colleagues at Virginia Tech (Daniel McLaughlin, Erin Hotchkiss, Durrelle Scott) and University of Alabama (Nate Jones), we have regular sampling campaigns and a sensor network collecting carbon-related data continuously to understand the hydrologic connectivity and its influence on water chemistry. 3) University of Maryland funded work includes a large project focused on small-scale variability in methane fluxes -- particularly the role of wetland plants, soil and pore water chemistry. |
Past WorkOver the years, the Palmer Lab has focused extensively on understanding how human activity has altered ecological patterns and processes in streams and rivers. Additionally, extensive fundamental and applied work has been associated with the restoration of streams and rivers. Many students and postdocs have contributed to this work -- largely funded by NSF -- over the years.
Past projects include:
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