Global Human Salt Marsh Degradation in Your Neighborhood – with Mark Bertness In-Person
Join the Barrington Land Conservation Trust for a special lecture on salt marsh degradation by Dr. Mark Bertness. This lecture is part of their 2023 Land Trust Learning Series.
Dr. Bertness will bring the challenge of salt marsh degradation into focus. Coastal salt marshes are one of the most valuable ecosystems on Earth in terms of the services they provide humanity. Historically, however, marshes have been extensively ditched, drained, and developed, motivating the conservation and restoration of remaining marshes.
Conservation of the surviving local marshes is not an easy task, since the most severe current threats are not local, but global. Eutrophication, invasive species, sea level rise, and overfishing lead to trophic collapse. These large-scale problems impact coastal wetlands across the globe. Dr. Bertness will examine how these factors, individually and collectively, are leading to rapid degradation of Narragansett Bay marshes and the entire East Coast of North America.
About Dr. Mark Bertness
Mark Bertness grew up beachcombing on the shores of the Salish Sea in Washington State, where he developed a passion for shoreline ecology. His research has taken him to Panama, the Netherlands, Sardinia, Argentina, Chile, China — and Barrington, Rhode Island. He has authored several books on marine ecology, one of which he wrote while sitting in the Barrington Public Library. He is the Robert P. Brown Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Emeritus at Brown University.
The 2023 Land Trust Learning Series is generously sponsored by Chart House Realtors and Prickly Ed's Cactus Patch. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please email cindyelder@blct.org
