Their objective was to quantify short-term and long-term effects of sea level rise on coastal processes such as plant productivity, decomposition of organic matter in soil, sedimentation that contribute to the structuring of wetland stability.
These consequences will affect stress-gradients that are imposed on coastal vegetation, but the tolerances of these plant species and the trade-offs they may experience are unclear.
[4] A group of researchers used a marsh organ to evaluate the effects of an invasive grass to the native plant communities of an estuary in China.
[5] Another group who used the marsh organ in the Pacific Northwest of North America to study its role in field testing seed recruitment niches found that species common to the area like S. tabernaemontani exhibited nearly significant higher germination rates around the average tidal height, while the species Carex lyngbyei survived significantly better around the highest tidal height.
[6] Along with the stress of rising sea levels, marsh vegetation is also influenced by many outside sources such as storms, drought, nutrient enrichment, and elevation change with subsidence.
A group using the marsh organ to study Spartina alterniflora, an abundant low marsh (typically flooded throughout the day) grass found that storm and drought stressors led to significantly less above-ground biomass and below-ground biomass than those planted in ambient rain conditions.
[9] Marsh plants can be sensitive to elevation change accompanying sea level rise due to the altering of their desired habitats.
Using the marsh organ setup, researchers discovered that for marsh elevations higher than optimum expected at low sea level rise rates, acceleration in the rate of sea level rise will enhance root growth, organic accretion and wetland stability altogether.