About the Project

Phragmites australis is an invasive grass species that affects many marshes along the U.S east coast, often displacing native grasses. Removing Phragmites has been a decades-long management goal as managers seek to restore native high marsh habitat and ecosystem functions and services. Phragmites removal and restoration efforts have proven beneficial for habitat and biodiversity. However, its removal has potentially negative impacts on water quality and carbon storage. A potential approach for managing tradeoffs associated with Phragmites removal is to use prescribed fire. While prescribed fire is a common method for vegetation removal, there has been limited research on the biogeochemical benefits provided by burned biomass or “biochar” left behind after these fires. Collaborating with regional coastal managers, this project team compared salt marshes with and without a history of prescribed burns at Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve and nearby marshes to better quantify how prescribed burns and biochar impacts marshes and their ecosystem services.

About this Resource

This project generated two datasets from field sampling at three salt marshes with varying burn histories in Delaware. The dataset description provides more information about each dataset.

• Dataset 1 - Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus field data: Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and ancillary data collected from salt marshes with varying prescribed burn histories.
• Dataset 2 - Thin layer placement experimental data: Denitrification potential, phosphorus measurements and ancillary data collected from a field biochar amendment experiment in native and non-native grass stands.

Both data sets are available at the Open Science Framework.

Question about these datasets can be directed to:

Andrew Wozniak, University of Delaware, [email protected]