Research Grant: Long-Term Monitoring of Marl Prairie/Slough Vegetation Dynamics

Disclosures of current and pending support made in this application may render an applicant ineligible for funding. Prior to award and throughout the period of performance, ERDC may continue to request updated continuing and pending support information, which will be reviewed and may result in discontinuation of funding.

Religious organizations are entitled to compete on equal footing with secular organizations for Federal financial assistance as described in E.O. 13798, “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty.”

The purpose of this research is to continue a long-term dataset used to monitor changes in vegetation along established transects in the prairie-slough gradient across Shark River Slough and into the edges of the marl prairie on the eastern and/or western sides of the slough.

Additionally, there is potential work related to using monitoring data to develop tools to measure ecological performance in response to CERP implementation. Budget and scope to be developed separate from anticipated work described above.

The project objectives include:

Objective 1: To characterize the composition, structure and abundance of prairie and slough vegetation communities and determine the changes in composition and extent of plant communities along marl prairie/slough gradients,

Objective 2: To identify the boundary between different vegetation assemblages, characterize the bio-physical attributes of transition zone, and detect the spatio-temporal shift in the position of the boundaries, and

Objective 3: To relate changes in vegetation structure and composition, particularly in the transition zone, to hydrologic changes resulting from CERP restoration activities, or climatic variation.