Tidal Wetlands Primer: An Introduction to Their Ecology, Natural History, Status, and Conservation

Acknowledgments

xix Several people stimulated my interest in tidal wetlands and gave me opportunities to develop my skills as a wetland ecologist over the years. For their support, I’d like to thank John Rankin and Michael Lefor (University of Connecticut), Michael McKenzie and Rob Dunlap (South Carolina Marine Resources Division), Curt Laffin and Dave Riley (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), and Peter Veneman (University of­Massachusetts). This book would not have been possible without the efforts of many researchers who have spent years investigating tidal wetlands. Several of them have helped me produce a primer that will serve as a foundation for would-be scientists and others interested in learning more about tidal wetlands. I’d like to acknowledge and thank the many reviewers of the first draft of this manuscript and others who helped critique near-final chapters in preparation for publication. Reviewers of the draft manuscript include John Teal (Woods Hole Biological Laboratory), Andrew Baldwin (University of Maryland), Candy Bartoldus (George Mason University), Gail Chmura (McGill University), James Perry (Virginia Institute of Marine Science), Richard Stalter (St. John’s University), Charles Roman (U.S. Geological Survey), Ron Rozsa (Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection), Sean Basquill (Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre), Alan Hanson (Canadian Wildlife Service), Martin Jean (St. ­ Lawrence Center, Montreal), and Lee Swanson (New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources & Energy). Many of these scientists also provided material or referrals to other papers that helped improve and expand the scope of this manuscript, while some also reviewed later chapters. Reviewers of specific chapters related to their expertise or interests were Mallory Gilbert, William Sipple, Joshua Collins (San Francisco Estuary Institute), Jon Kusler (Association of State Wetland Managers), Jan Smith (Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management), Don Leopold (Environmental School of Forestry, State University of New York), ­ Christopher Craft (Indiana University), David Burdick (University of New ­ Hampshire), Matthew Hatvany (Universit é Laval), Paul Adamus (Oregon State University), Donald Cahoon (U.S. Geological Survey), Robert Buchsbaum (Massachusetts Audubon Society), Amy Deller Jacobs and Mark Biddle (Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control ), Laura Brophy (Institute of Applied Ecology, Oregon), Janet Morlan (Oregon Department of State Lands), John Hefner (Atkins North America), Kevin Hess (Pennsylvania Office of Coastal Zone Management ), and three students from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science—Sean Charles, Wes ­ Hudson, and Lori Sutter. Their reviews helped improve the depth of ­ coverage of Acknowledgments xx  Acknowledgments many topics. I am especially grateful to John Teal for providing the foreword to this book. Numerous individuals provided information that was helpful in preparing various chapters: Michael Bartlett, Dan Belknap, Luc Brouillet, David Burke, Laura ­ Cammon, Wendy Carey, Bruce Carlisle, David ­ Chamberlain, Michele Dionne, John Dorney, Karen Duhring, Sherif Fahmy, John ­ Gallegos, Stephen Gill, Glenn ­ Guntenspergen, Jon Hall, Nate ­ Herold, John ­ Holman, John Jeglum, Michael ­ Kearney, Matthew ­ Kirwan, Eric Lamont, Curtis Larson, Claude Lavoie, Jan ­ Mackinnon, Ken Metzler, Julie­ Michaelson, Randy Milton, Kim de Mutsert, Matthew Perry, John Potente, C. Edward Proffitt, ­ Maryellen Sault, Dale Schweitzer, Richard Shaw, Joe Smith, Steve Sollod, Jerry Tande, Mark Tedesco, Bill ­ Teschek, Irwin Ungar, ­ Vinton Valentine, Kelly Vertucci, Ken Webb, and Matt ­ Whitbeck. Others assisting in ­ researching materials were Marc Pollett, Terri ­ Winchcombe, and Leo ­Cheverie. Aerial imagery comes from government sources except for copyrighted satellite images from MDA Information Systems, Inc. (Gaithersburg, MD). Thanks to Greg Koeln and Mike O’Brien for providing these images that show the broad-scale view of tidal wetlands in several estuarine ecosystems . Also I am grateful to Lindsey Lefebvre who prepared the interactive maps of tidal wetlands for the conterminous United States that are accessible through ScholarWorks@ UMassAmherst and to Bob Lichvar for his support in this effort. While most of the wetland type photos are mine, wildlife and other photos were graciously provided by a host of photographers or were available from government websites. Photographers are credited in the respective caption. Illustrations were obtained from a variety of sources including government publications and journal articles. Special thanks to Richard Heard for allowing use of drawings from his book on estuarine invertebrates and to various organizations permitting use of copyrighted material. Josh Collins and Ruth Askevold (San Francisco Estuary Institute ) provided figures showing tidal wetland losses in the Bay area. My son Dillon helped redraw some figures for this book. I owe my wife, Barbara, an enormous thank you for her tolerance of the various piles of references, handwritten notes, and other paraphernalia that were scattered about our home during my decade-long effort to get this manuscript prepared...