Christopher Lundberg - VSP | UCAR Visiting Scientist Programs

The introduction of effluent to the marsh has lead to structural changes in the marsh plantcommunity (Lundberg, 2008). The marsh has been shown to effectively remove nutrients,including nitrate (Hunter et al., 2009). Shortly after discharge, an increase in standing cropbiomass was observed (Figure 5) (Lundberg, 2008). This was followed by an influx of nutria(Myocastor coypus), an invasive herbivore. Nutria are capable of denuding local herbaceousplant communities through massive “eat-outs”, often resulting in a loss of productivity anddiversity (Shaffer et al., 1992), which also occurred at Four Mile Marsh (Lundberg, 2008). Sincenutria management practices were adopted, the marsh has partially recovered, and studies showthat excluding nutria in the area result in increased productivity and diversity.Figure 1: Four Mile Marsh wastewater assimilation wetland ; one transect of sampling siteswould be established within each subunit depicted.