Tag Archives: smooth cordgrass

A long time in the making

If you want an activity that will take a lot of your time, go out onto your lawn and try to figure out which blades of grass belong to what individual plant. The grass in a salt marsh, like your lawn, is made up of various individuals, each with different characteristics that contribute to the success of a marsh. Dr. Randall Hughes’ new experiment looks at what makes habitat building cordgrass individuals successful. Continue reading

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Tricks or Treats? And more on the effects of predators in marshes.

When David Kimbro looks through his trick-or-treat bag, he doesn’t see candy, he sees oyster shells and periwinkle snails. Can predators trick periwinkles into not destroying marsh cordgrass? Or will they serve as tasty treats for blue crabs? David shares his data. Continue reading

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Are two friends better than one?

Fiddler crabs benefit salt marshes. Ribbed mussels benefit salt marshes. But together, is their effect even greater, or do they cancel each other out? Dr. Randall Hughes of the FSU Coastal & Marine Lab looks to find out. Continue reading

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Who am I? Identity In the Grass

Katie Lotterhos FSU Department of Biological Sciences, FSU When we look at a salt marsh, we see thousands of stems of cordgrass. But in reality, the coastline may be made up of only a few different genetic individuals.  This is … Continue reading

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Return to the field

Dr. Randall Hughes FSU Coastal & Marine Lab A sure sign of spring for me is an increase in time in the field. (Robyn and Emily would probably disagree with me, since they have been out in the field regularly … Continue reading

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The “In the Grass” Top 10 of 2010

Dr. Randall Hughes FSU Coastal & Marine Lab In keeping with all of the other end-of-year top 10 lists, I’ll wrap up 2010 with my own observations and highlights from In the Grass – 10. No tarballs – yet?? The … Continue reading

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Winter in the marsh

Dr. Randall Hughes FSU Coastal & Marine Lab It has been COLD the last few times we’ve been out in the field. The first time (described accurately by Rob), we did not have sufficient cold weather field gear – David … Continue reading

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Cold and Wet: Field Research in the Winter

Rob Diaz de Villegas WFSU-TV I was driving to Stump Hole with my production assistant Kevin when we saw these waves crashing on the rocks on the beach side of Cape San Blas.  Like any good production people, we knew … Continue reading

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Just one more thing…

Dr. Randall Hughes FSU Coastal & Marine Lab Because of the big focus on oysters over the last month, it may seem as if we haven’t been doing anything “In the grass”. We’ve been busy, though, trying to squeeze in … Continue reading

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The search for patterns

Dr. Randall Hughes FSU Coastal & Marine Lab The end of summer is a good time to pause and think about any general patterns that emerge from observations over the course of the last year(s). Sometimes it is easy to … Continue reading

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