Fungal Communities Associated with Sea Oats Seeds Harvested from Sand Beaches and Seed Production Nurseries

摘要

Sea level rise is of great concern worldwide. Along the Gulf of Mexico coast in the United States, many areas, especially in Louisiana, are vulnerable to irreversible economic and cultural losses as sea level rises. The coastal wetlands of south Louisiana, which buffer tropical storms and hurricanes, have been vanishing at a spectacularly swift pace. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), almost 90 square kilometers of south Louisiana land, mostly marsh, have disappeared each year for the past 50 years; from 1932 to 2000, the state lost almost 5,000 square kilometers of land. In an attempt to protect and restore what wetlands remain, numerous federal, tribal, state, and local agencies are applying extensive efforts such as marsh creation, vegetative plantings, shoreline protection, river diversions, and use of dredged material (LWC 2011). Due to the low cost of installing native plants, relative to man-made structures, and the ecological benefits of native plants, there is increased attention and implementation of planting native perennial vegetation in restoration programs (Maddox and Kelly 2009, USDA-NRCS 2010). Most dune restoration projects along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast install sea oats (Uniola paniculata) because it is a native dune plant of the coasts of southern Atlantic and northern Gulf of Mexico of the United States (Wagner 1964, Woodhouse 1978) that tolerates high winds, salt spray, tropical storms and hurricanes, sand burial, low soil nutrients, xeric conditions, and extremely high soil temperatures (Barbour and Johnson 1990) common to coastal dunes.