Fire Ecology of Coastal Marsh

Understanding of effects of fire in coastal salt marshes lags significantly behind knowledge of fire ecology of inland areas. Despite the knowledge that lightning-ignited fires occur almost exclusively during the growing season in coastal marshes (Lynch 1941) as well as the upland pine forests that surround them (Robbins and Myers 1992), virtually all prescribed burning in coastal marshes has occurred during the dormant season in recent history. Reasons for this include:

1. the fact that some dominant coastal marsh plants such as Needle rush may only burn under extreme conditions in the growing season.
2. fall and winter burning promote annual food plants used by fur-bearing species (e.g., muskrats) and waterfowl (Nyman and Chabreck 1995);
3. fears that growing-season burns will destroy bird nests; and
4. concerns that spring or summer fires will disrupt marsh processes.

To date, almost all research on fire effects in coastal marsh habitats has focused on burns during the dormant season (reviewed by Nyman and Chabreck 1995). The only published information on growing-season burns in salt marshes of the southeastern U.S. focuses on fire as a remediation tool for oil spills (reviewed by Mendelssohn et al. 1996). While dormant-season fire has been shown to improve both the quality and availability of forage habitat for resident and migratory waterfowl and fur-bearing species, effects on non-game species are poorly understood. In addition, no data are available to support the frequently stated belief that growing-season fires are almost always detrimental to salt marsh ecosystems.

See: Fire and coastal marsh birds and Fire effects on marsh vegetation