Salt marsh ecosystems are frequently threatened by development activity.  Development on the shoreline may have strong effects on the ecology of adjacent high marsh zones.  The high marsh is a relatively diverse region of salt marshes and forms an important boundary between the terrestrial shoreline and the frequently inundated low marsh.  Investigating whether shoreline development influences the structure and function of the high marsh is a continuing focus of research by several CCU faculty members and students interested in ecology, including Dr. Keith Walters and Dr. Eric Koepfler in the Department of Marine Science, Dr. Jim Luken and Dr. Kevin Godwin in the Department of Biology, and several undergraduate and graduate students. We published some of our findings in Aquatic Sciences (PDF)

A CCU undergraduate, Ashley Mauldin, presented a portion of this work at the 2004 Marine Benthic Ecology meeting in Mobile, AL.  Click here to view a .pdf version of our poster.