Salt marshes decomposition

Pantoja, S., and C. Lee. 1999. Peptide decomposition by extracellular hydrolysis in coastal seawater and salt marsh sediment. Marine Chemistry 63 273-291. 

Curdo, A., Ibanez, C., Day, J.W., and Prat, N. (2002) Net primary production and decomposition of salt marshes of the Ebre delta (Catalonia, Spain). Estuaries 25, 309-324. 

Valiela, I., Teal., J.M., Allan, S.D., van Etten, R., Goehungel, D., and Volkman, S. (1985) Decomposition in salt marsh ecosystems the phases and major factors affecting disappearance of above-ground organic matter. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 89, 29-54. 

Wilson, J.O., Buchsbaum, R., Valiela, I., and Swain, T. (1986) Decomposition in salt marsh ecosystems phenolic dynamics during decay of litter of Spartina altemiflora. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 29, 177-187. 

Klap, V., Louchouam, P., Boon, J., Hemminga, M., and van Soelen, J. (1999). Decomposition dynamics of six salt marsh halophytes as determined by cupric oxide oxidation and direct temperature-resolved spectrometry. Limnol. Oceanogr. 44, 1458-1476. 

Sulfur reduction is the major form of microbial respiration in salt marsh sediments. However, it is difficult to estimate with precision what percentage of respiration is mediated by sulfate reduction, since total respiration and aerobic respiration are both poorly known in salt marsh sediments. The estimates on the percentage of total microbial respiration that is mediated by sulfate reduction are based on the comparison of measured rates of sulfate reduction with estimates of inputs and the decomposition of organic matter in these marsh sediments. Unfortunately, the inputs of organic carbon to marsh sediments are not easily measured and not well known. 

As a result of bacterial sulfate reduction and decomposition of organic material, large amounts of reduced sulfur gases are emitted into the atmosphere annually from wetland systems, especially tidally influenced marine sediments and salt marshes (Adams et al., 1979,1981). 

White, D. A., T. E. Weiss, J. M. Trapani, and L. B. Thein. 1978. Productivity and decomposition of the dominant salt marsh plants in Louisiana. Ecology 59 751-759. 

Table 1, Decomposition Models Used to Fit a Year-Long Litterbag Study of Spartina alterniflora Decomposition in a Salt Marsh Creek... 

Foote, A. L., and Reynolds, K.A. (1997) Salt meadow cordgrass (Spartina patens) decomposition and its importance in Louisiana coastal marshes. Estuaries 20, 579-588. 

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