FT #6 - Wetlands at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)
     Leader: Dennis Whigham (whighamd@serc.si.edu)

Trip departs at 12:15 PM from the circular drive at the rear entrance to the Wardman Park Hotel
Anticipated return at 6:00 PM
Limited to 25 participants

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is home to a variety of research exploring the linkages of land and water ecosystems in the coastal zone.  SERC, located on the Rhode River, a subestuary of the Chesapeake Bay, includes a wide variety of habitats that are typical of the mid-Atlantic region, including nontidal and tidal wetlands.  after a brief introduction of the site and an overview of the range of research that is conducted at SERC, participants will explore a variety of wetlands.  The tour will begin at a constructed wetland that was designed, using ecological principles, to intercept and process runoff from a recently constructed dormitory.  The group will then walk to an abandoned beaver pond that is dominated by non-native invasive species.  From the floodplain forest the group will walk to the Hog Island marsh, which is a brackish intertidal wetland that includes examples of several types of plant communities that are typical of the mid-Atlantic region.   Phragmites australis is currently invading several communities in the Hog Island marsh and the dynamics of the invasion process will be discussed.  The tour will end at a visit to a field station that is the home of two ongoing experiments on the effects of elevated CO2 on ecosystem properties.  One experiment is the longest running chamber-based study in the world on the effects of elevated CO2 on natural wetland communities.  The other experiment is a chamber-based study that focuses on the interfacing of CO2 and nitrogen on carbon sequestration.  More information about SERC is available at http://www.serc.si.edu.

Picture credits: Top left, SERC Biogeochemistry Lab; Bottom left, Marc Sigrist; Right, J. Patrick Megonigal