More are threatened by continued shoreline development and the cumulative impact of permitted wetlands filling. There is growing interest in restoring tidal wetlands in Western Maine, but marshes east of the Kennebec River are smaller, more numerous and virtually unstudied. Wetlands banking and conventional restorations are not always a solution. Protocols for restoration are not tailored to bioregions. We don't know how progressive degradation affects inter-related systems or how variations in coastal ecology create different contributions to the overall picture by currents and movements of organisms.
Soils are different.
Our indices are based primarily on vegetation, an insufficient barometer. Answering these questions is a primary concern of Ghost Nets as the project enters its final year. Collaboration across disciplines pools the conceptual resources of each. Ghost Nets married state of the art science and art about ecology into accessible delivery systems. Ghost Nets goal is to bring attention to the implications of wetlands loss.