- Watch: Full Session Recording (YouTube)
- Explore: Webinar Summary Resources
Sea level rise and climate change present major threats to tidal marshes nationwide. To track and understand these impacts, the National Marsh Synthesis Team (NAMASTE) has synthesized plant community and sediment accretion data at 85 marshes across 17 coastal states within 20 National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs). Tidal marsh monitoring in the NERRs began nationwide over 10 years ago, allowing NAMASTE the unique opportunity to conduct a first of its kind analysis on a national scale using data collected through a standardized monitoring program. Project goals included: 1) providing insight on how climate change is affecting marshes, both at the national-level and Reserve-level; 2) creating automated tools based in R for data analysis and visualization; and 3) producing science translation products to support management and policy around coastal marshes.
To reach these goals, NAMASTE employed several analytical techniques as well as a collaborative approach engaging coastal researchers, managers and educators around the country. In this webinar, members of the project team shared high-level results and takeaways from the project, as well as their recommendations for how the methods they employed could be transferred to other coastal habitats for future analyses.
Speakers:
 | Chris Peter, Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve Chris specializes in near-shore coastal ecosystems with a concentration in tidal marsh ecology- research, restoration and long-term monitoring. He has extensive knowledge in designing and implementing field monitoring, as well as analyzing tidal marsh datasets at local to national scales. Chris co-leads Namaste with Kim Cressman and David Burdick, leading all aspects of the project. |
 | David Burdick, Jackson Estuarine Lab, University of New Hampshire David is a Research Associate Professor of Coastal Ecology and Restoration at the University of New Hampshire, where he has taught wetlands courses over the past twenty years. His study of coastal science spans 35 years, concentrating on coastal wetlands, assessing human impacts, and planning, implementing and assessing habitat restoration at the Jackson Estuarine Laboratory, where he serves as Director. He co-leads Namaste, bringing decades of experience. |
 | Grant McKown, Jackson Estuarine Lab, University of New Hampshire Grant is a research scientist in the Coastal Habitat Restoration Team specializing in the monitoring and restoration of salt marshes, oyster reefs, and eelgrass meadows in New England. He has extensive knowledge in wetland botany, experimental design of restoration projects, and remote sensing analysis of the natural environment. Grant aided in the quality control and the univariate component of the national analysis. |
 | Alice Yeates, South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve Alice is the Stewardship Coordinator at the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. Alice has a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Queensland and experience with both estuarine vegetation monitoring and analysing complex and diverse datasets. She has been working on the Namaste project to guide statistical analyses and conduct national level syntheses. |