Polly Hicks
Department of Landscape Architecture
Cook College, Rutgers University
Blake Hall, 93 Lipman Dr.
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
phicks@aesop.rutgers.edu
(732) 932-4320
 Polly Hicks obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Biology from the College of Wooster in 1998. After working in the field of ecology and environmental consulting for three years, she returned to graduate school to obtain her Master's Degree in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University. Her research and graduate studies have focused on restoration, plant and urban ecology. Polly is dedicated to working on ecological restorations in an urban setting because it allows her to blend her main professional interests: science and community involvement/outreach. She strongly believes that enhancing urban habitats through restoration will significantly improve the environmental health of a region as well as improve the quality of life for the people living in adjacent communities. Polly's thesis research, which critically examined a common wetland restoration planting practice, reflects her dedication to developing and implementing restoration projects that enhance our understanding of ecosystems, improve environmental health and engage the public in an effective manner.
Polly will obtain her Master's Degree in October of 2004 and has accepted a fellowship with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Restoration Center in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Seed Dispersal Dynamics and Vegetation Community Development in a Restored Brackish Marsh: Implications for Restoration Success
by Polly Lucille Hicks
Natural colonization is frequently relied upon to establish the desired vegetation community and structure of brackish and saline marshes for restoration purposes. Predicting the amount of colonization that will occur is difficult because the dispersal ecology of brackish marsh systems has not been well studied. In this study, I examined seed dispersal dynamics and vegetation community development within a restored brackish marsh of the Hackensack Meadowlands, New Jersey. To characterize the seed input, seed traps were placed around the mouth and interior of the marsh (position) with 13 traps in each of the low marsh, high marsh and upland transitional zones at each position (78 traps in total). The standing vegetation around each trap was monitored in 2002 and 2003.
Although several new species were found in the seed input and significant zone effects were found to influence dispersal patterns, the composition of the seed input strongly reflected the local vegetation community and adjacent habitats. This indicates that dispersal due to tidal flushing is moderate and does not result in an intense mixing of the seeds nor a large import of seeds from the larger estuary.
A majority of the non-dominant species that occur at low densities in an intact brackish marsh had readily colonized the site and were the main components of the seed input and standing vegetation community of the restored marsh. The clonal graminoids that typically dominate a brackish marsh system were primarily absent from the seed input. Spartina alterniflora , which was planted and had set seed in the restored marsh, was the only dominant graminoid to be found in the seed input and even then, was only found in two plots.
Clonal dominants of salt and brackish marsh systems appear to be dispersal limited and therefore should not be relied upon to naturally colonize a restored site unless there is a direct adjacent seed source. My results indicate that in order to have a comprehensive understanding of dispersal dynamics one has to consider both landscape and local conditions including distances to source populations, adjacent vegetation communities and tidal forces as well as individual species dispersal capabilities.
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