Critical slowing down: vegetation height, cover and composition assess resilience of tidal fresh, brackish and salt marshes following experimental disturbance at twelve sites across the estuarine landscape

We investigated the relative recovery rates of vegetation cover, vegetation height and community composition over a period of >10 years after experimental disturbance in 12 tidal marshes (two oligohaline, three mesohaline and seven polyhaline sites) across the estuarine landscape on the coast of Georgia, USA. Vegetation was removed from three by three meter plots (four per site) with herbicide in 2006 followed by repeated clipping through 2009. Vegetation height, cover and composition was assessed in experimental and control plots (4 of each per site) from 2010 to 2020. The goal of the study was to assess how quickly the sites recovered from disturbance, how this varied in different types of marshes, and how results varied depending on whether recovery was assessed by vegetation height, cover or composition.