Salt marshes have been disintegrating and dying over the past two decades along the U.S. Eastern seaboard and other highly developed coastlines, without anyone fully understanding why. A new paper reports that nutrients—such as nitrogen and phosphorus from septic and sewer systems and lawn fertilizers—can cause salt-marsh loss. http://goo.gl/7OeFI
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You might think the answer is "very carefully", but in the case of Opuntia fragilis, it turns out to be "not at all". Considering its aversion to reproduction, one wonders how the brittle prickly...
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The European Commission says clearing land in order to plant biofuel crops can often cancel out the environmental benefits of biofuel. In some cases forests are chopped down. The EU is putting a cap of 5% on the food...
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Why do u need a salt marsh? isnt it a good thing they are falling apart and giving way to new more fertile land? +Annals of Botany Nice pic.
Salt marshes are complex ecosystems which provide habitat for a huge array of animals… beyond that, offshore wetlands act as buffer zones for storms coming in off the ocean. Wetlands restoration is currently underway in the Gulf of Mexico because Hurricane Katrina made a lot of people realize how much the wetlands soften the impact of hurricanes and tropical storms.
The land that you get when salt marshes die off isn't fertile anyway — "salt marsh" is a descriptive term. 🙂 You get land which is boggy and far too saline for many commercial crop plants.