Skimmer Says... Marsh Madness!

It’s finally Marsh! Well, we meant March but close enough because this episode is all about marshes! Join us as we discuss the characteristics and importance of marshes, and meet our Research Coordinator, Dr. Mollie Yacano! Stay until the end where we talk about our favorite game we play this month – Marsh Madness!

To contact the education team about an education program or volunteer event, email us at dnerrprograms@delaware.gov. 

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Welcome to Skimmer Says, an Estuarine podcast, hosted by the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve. We are your hosts. I'm Laurel. I'm Sadie. And I'm Akshay. And it's Marsh! Right? You mean March? It is March. Yes. So it is March. One of our favorite months of the year. And because it's March, we get to have our first ever guest co-host. This is Doctor Mollie Yacano. She is our research coordinator. So, Mollie, can you introduce yourself? Hi, everyone. So like Laurel said, I'm the research coordinator here at the Delaware NERR. What that means is I manage all of different applied science projects. We do everything from monitoring marsh birds to horseshoe crabs. Monitoring surface elevation of the marshes, water quality, kind of across the board. And I've been here about two years now. I did my Ph.D. at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and then scurried up to Delaware and have been here ever since. What did you get your PhD in, Mollie? I got my PhD in marine sciences. So, I mostly focused on how marshes process nutrients such as nitrogen. That is exciting stuff. So we are really excited to have Molly here with us to talk a little bit about marshes, her favorite thing in the entire world. And so you could cannot imagine having a better co-host guest spotlight to talk all about that. So thank you for having me here today. I'm excited to jump into it. Well, then let's jump straight into the mud. Before we jump into the mud, let's have a quick game time, shall we? Sounds fun. Sweet. Okay, our first question is a would you rather question. Okay. Would you rather wear waders or boots in the marsh? Definitely boots. I have yet to find a pair of waders that I've that I feel at home, but there's nothing better than the pair of boots that I've had since my freshman year of college. That's an interesting opinion. I feel like a lot of people might disagree with you on that, but boots are boots. Yeah, until your waders flood or they rip and then you're unexpectedly covered in water. Boots - I know what I'm getting into with them. But your waders are going to help keep your feet somewhat dry until they rip or get flooded. I feel like your boots are easier to get flooded than your waders. Yeah, I guess I can see both sides of it. I just really like dry socks. Follow up question to the waders and boots. You chose boots. But let's say that you're like a foot away from the land and you know that your next step, you're going to get stuck in the marsh and you have to lose a boot. What boot would you lose, your left boot or your right boot? That's kind of hard. I think probably my right boot I mean I don't know I'm right handed. So I feel like my right leg is probably stronger. So maybe it would get me unstuck from the marsh easier. I don't know, I don't really love any time I lose a boot in the marsh though, so I'd prefer to lose neither. It's a good answer there. Yeah. Now, would you prefer to be in the marsh when it's really hot outside or when it's really cold outside? Definitely when it's cold outside. Not only because I would sweat less, but also because the marsh is easier to walk on when it starts getting frozen up. So definitely cold. You can also put on like heat, like hand warmers and foot warmers. And I always I'm like, well, you can always add more layers, but you get to a spot that you can't take any more layers off. Can you take off your waders? I think that's my approach to weather in general and the season, and I think that goes back to why I don't like waders in general, though, because they make you so hot in the marsh. Yeah. Like you're just stuck in them. Yeah that's fair. All right. One last question because we're trying to get you a little bit acclimated before we hit you with all the heavy, hard questions. So say that you are stranded out in the marsh. But we all know that you're prepared. So you've brought your water and you've brought your food. You can only have three other things. What are they? Okay, I'm stranded in the marsh, presumably with a buddy, since we never go in the marsh alone. Right. I think I would probably bring a good book. So I'm going to have my book to read. Probably my phone, just in case. I don't know if it's going to have service, but at least I can try to help me call for help. And probably my needle point. So I have a lot of activity to do. Hopefully I have some hand sanitizer, but I've got a lot of water so I can wash my hands off so it's clean. You'll be sunburned, but happy. Oh, shoot, I forgot about sunscreen! Can we ask that one again? No, I think you should just roll with it. What would you bring, Sadie? Oh, I think I would bring one of those crossword puzzles. I really love those. I would definitely be doing that in the marsh. And let's see, two other things I don't know I wasn’t prepared for me to be asked that question. All right. What would you bring? Okay, so I've been thinking about it ever since I asked Mollie. I think I want a very small but reasonably sized tarp for me to sit on so that I can sit down. Or I could take a little cozy little catnap. But I'm not getting wet. I think I also am bringing my sun protection because I sunburn so easily, and I think I'm with you. I think I'm either going to bring I'm going to bring my phone because realistically, I can read a book on my phone. That makes a lot of sense. And then I can call you to come get me. Yeah. If you have service, then yeah, actually have service. Akshay, what about you? Oh, I think I'll bring a deck of cards, because if I'm out there with the buddy, then, you know, we can keep each other entertained. I'm going to bring bug spray opposed to sunscreen because I feel like the bugs would bother me more at the moment, opposed to the sunburn. And I know we said I have food, but I'm going to bring more food because I feel like I'm going to get hungry and bored and I feel like I want to eat. So extra snacks, snacks keep morale high in the marsh. That's definitely a like a need when you're out there. I didn't even think about the bug spray, and I might have to go back and reevaluate my answers because that comes in clutch. Yeah, yeah. I'm also reevaluating my answers. Good call on the bug spray, Akshay. Well, since we know a little bit more about Mollie, let's dive deep into some more information. So, Mollie, can you tell us what characterizes a marsh? Yeah, of course. Marshes are areas that are also known as wetlands. So kind of in the name. They're wet-lands. They're regularly flooded. So they have times when they have water on them. They have times when they don't. They're characterized by poorly drained soils. Mostly herbaceous plant cover rather than woody plant cover. And they also have like a lot of different types of vegetation such as sedges, grasses, rushes and things like that. What's the best way to tell the difference between all the vegetation, Mollie? Okay, so I learned this when I was an undergrad, and it's one of my favorite tricks. Sedges have edges, rushes are round, and grasses have joints that bend to the ground. So it's a quick and dirty way that you can tell the difference between the different types of marsh vegetation. And then there's also a few different main types of marshes. We have our brackish tidal marshes. So those saltier marshes, tidal fresh and also non-tidal marshes. So those are the more inland ones. How are they different? The differences between them are a brackish tidal marsh has brackish water. So saltier water, it's fresh and saltwater mixing. So it might not be as salty as, the ocean or the bay, but it is it does have some salt to it. Fresh, tidal fresh, like it sounds. It's going to be freshwater. You still have that tidal influence, but you're past the point where the salt is mixing with the freshwater and the non-tidal fresh are areas of where there's marshes. And those are things like adjacent to lakes and ponds where you have areas of wetland, but you don't have that tidal component to them. So, Mollie, why are marshes important? Great question, Akshay. Marshes play a lot of different important roles in our environment. They're really important habitat grounds for a lot of economically and ecologically important fishes. They provide, erosion control both against storms and against, like a regular wave activity. They can help make us more resilient to things like sea level rise and climate change. They also are important that filtering out nutrients and pollution before they get into those sensitive, estuarine environments adjacent to marshes. So they really play a lot of, key roles in keeping our, our water healthy and clean. Yeah, so Molly. What are the biggest threats to marshes? Marshes face a lot of threats. So one of the big one is, although they can provide protection from sea level rise, they also are really threatened by sea level rise. And this is because marshes are able to grow in two main ways. One is called accretion. So vertical accretion is when they grow vertically and the other is marsh migration, which is when they move horizontally across the landscape. And in a lot of areas we're not able to have marshes move because we've developed and that's called coastal squeeze. So marshes are kind of stuck in where they can accrete vertically. And so if marshes aren’t able to have at a rate that a rate that keeps up with sea level rise, we're losing marshes because of that. So when you say marshes accrete vertically. Yes. What does that mean? What does that look like? How does that happen? So basically it's sediment getting stored on the top of the marshes and sitting there. So it's like you would think you if you're pouring sand into a jar, you put one layer of sand, you put another layer of sand. You're slowly getting more over time. So in the case of marshes, a lot of that vegetation that's there is actually trapping the sediment that's coming in. And it can come both ways. It can come in through the tides, there's sediment suspended in the water column, and then it also can come into those like riverine land inputs. So it's just kind of like building on top of each other. Exactly. And there's a lot of different things that can play into how quickly that happens. And some of that material gets broken down. There's obviously constant tidal cycles and a lot and depending on the system, but there can be a tidal cycles taking sediment away. So it really it really varies. But that's one of the big things that plays into whether marshes are able to keep up with sea level rise or whether they're not. And then beyond that there's a lot of other things that are impacting marshes. So, changes in hydrology. We've changed a lot of our marshes by ditching them, by, dredging them, straightening of rivers, which is something we know that was done in the Saint Jones, which dramatically changed the river. And that in turn can change the marsh. There's also invasive species which can make the marsh less biodiverse, by out competing those native species that, other organisms may be depending on. And then we also have inputs such as nutrient pollution. other sources of pollution, heavy metals, etc.. So although they provide these really important ecosystems services, they also are being impacted by a lot of these human driven and climate factors. So if we're looking at our marshes and we know that they're facing threats, how are you and your crew kind of checking on how well a marsh is doing? Yeah, that's a great question. So one of the many research initiatives that we have at the reserve is our surface elevation tables. And those are done at all of the NERRS, nationally. Surface elevation tables are a way that over time, you can track how marsh elevation is changing at fixed points in the marshes. And so it can be hard to say on a day to day basis what's happening. But over time, especially as the surface elevation tables have been monitored every year for ten, 20, 30 years, you start to get this really nice data set of, okay, well, this is what the marsh is doing. And there was this event and this is what happened to the marsh afterward. This is the trend we saw in those elevations afterwards. So that's one of the, one of the ways that we kind of get at those, those elevation rates. So those surface elevation tables, they have, like, big long arms, right? What do they what do they look like? What are they doing? Yeah. So you have these arms that you put on at like fixed angles. So in each direction. And then you have these pins that you place into the arms and you're basically measuring the distance, at these different spots and comparing it over time. So the pins are hitting the elevation or the surface of the marsh. And you're measuring what, that, what those changes are cool. Oh, that sounds fun. So you mentioned a lot of like the ways the marshes are important and the various threats that marshes face. You also talked about some of the stuff that we at the Delaware NERR do to kind of research and study the marsh. But what can the general public do to help mitigate those threats that marshes are facing? Yeah. So it's a great question. I think that one thing, that comes to mind is particularly with things like fertilizers, like a lot of fertilizers contribute to that nutrient pollution that you see in marshes. So just being mindful of what you're applying, not applying a lot more than what you need, because that ends up in the runoff that ends in marshes. Also not littering. I can't tell you how many times we're out on field work Where we find a water bottle or a chips wrapper. Just random random stuff out there. So I think trying to keep those out of our marshes can really help. Help keep them healthy. Akshay and I were doing field work with our stewardship team, a couple days ago and found a balloon. And it's like, what is this balloon? Happy birthday! What is it doing in the middle of the field. So I think that when they say, you never know where your litter ends up, that's so true. A couple summers ago, we had, happy birthday balloon that it felt like it was following us a little bit. So I don't think it was the same exact balloon, but it was very similar, like somebody had gotten a whole bunch of them. So, we were out doing a boat trip and watched it bob across the St. Jones River. And so obviously we grabbed it and brought it back. And then there was a picture when we were doing our wildlife cam stuff of the balloon floating across like the marsh. And then we came and we were coming back from, we were at a meeting or something like that, and we were at the end of the driveway and the balloon was floating across. And like every time we were coming and grabbing and pulling them back. But I was like, who let these balloons go? Why are they literally everywhere this week? It's like the slow progression of them. Yeah, it's like my making up this balloon, but it was everywhere. It was the weirdest thing. It must have been a pretty fun birthday celebration. But it's pretty bad to litter. Yeah, but keep your balloons with you. So Sadie, I believe that you asked our Instagram followers if they had any questions for Mollie, right? Yeah, we have a couple of questions. So let's dive on into them. The first one is Mollie - what was the most unexpected wildlife encounter you have had while working in the marsh? Okay. I love this question. Let me paint you a picture. When I was a grad student, I was working in the North Carolina Reserves, which is also part of the NERR System. And I was doing field work up in Currituck Banks, which is the northernmost part of their reserve system. So I'm in the woods with one of my field technicians. We've just walked about a half a mile on the trail. We've gotten to our field site, we're setting things up, and all of a sudden a horse pops out of the marsh and we we both looked at each other like “did that just happen?”. And the North Carolina reserve has wild horses in it. That's like a part of their system. They have a really cool, interesting history, but they're also pretty elusive in all of the times I'd ever gone to that field site, I'd never seen a horse like that. And so we kind of just froze. Since you always want to stay, give a really good distance between you and any wildlife, and it was pretty far from us to start, but we just kind of froze and watched it for maybe like ten minutes before it disappeared back into the marsh to do what it was doing. So it's definitely, definitely one of my more fun wildlife encounters. That's awesome. Crazy. So our next one would be, what is your favorite thing about mud, Mollie? Oh, my favorite thing about mud. Okay, this is going to be controversial. And I if anyone watched the first episode, they know that Laurel said this too. I like the smell. I know it's weird. It's not a good smell, but it lets you know all of these really important processes are happening. So I really liked that Laurel talked about that one, because I think it's fun. And I think that, I'm really lucky that I get to go out and not only have fun in the marsh, but also help understand what some of those processes are. In case somebody didn't join us, which go back and rewatch, re-listen, in case somebody wasn't able to tune in for our first episode. How would you describe the smell, Mollie? Oh, it's kind of like rotten eggs. I'm not going to lie to you, but you really do start to get used to it over time. And then you go to a marsh that doesn't have a strong smell. And it kind of makes you wonder what's going on there. Missing something? It's missing something. Right. Next. Yeah, yeah. It's like a rotten egg fart smell. Okay, but now it may be gross. Now it sounds weird that that's my favorite part of it. Just a little bit. Oh, well. And so then our last question is what are some research projects that you're looking forward to? Oh, we've had a lot of fun stuff coming in the pipeline. One thing I'm really excited about, as we are exploring the possibility of installing a Motus tower, and that's one of the ways. So Motus Towers, help you kind of track the movement of birds. So they can also be used on butterflies. So they're fitted with these special tags that don't hurt them in any way. But, as they move place to place and they ping different towers, it can show that progression over time. So we've kind of got a, a spot where there's a gap in that coverage, at our Blackbird Creek Reserve. And so we're exploring the possibility of installing one in the near future. That's awesome. Yeah, that's really cool. Were those all of our questions? Yes. Awesome. So when we started talking about having Skimmer Says here at the office, Mollie was pretty insistent that she wanted to be on the March episode because one of our longest running social media campaigns that we run every year is our Marsh Madness event. So in Marsh Madness, what we do is we take I think 64 competitors and we stack them up against each other to be figuring out who is going to be the champion of the marsh that year. So Mollie was really invested in last year's Marsh Madness competition. I'm going to tell them a little bit about what is involved, and then I'm going to let you tell us your feelings about last year. And then I want to know who you have, who's getting your vote for this year. So Marsh Madness is done on our Instagram Stories. You can follow us at Delawarenerr on Instagram. And so basically you just have to vote whether you want this or that to win. And it's just a really great way that we can engage with the public. People get really into Marsh Madness. So we really love seeing where the votes are going every year, because they are never where I think that they're going to be. So, some of our past winners include the horseshoe crabs, the great blue heron, and last year was not expecting this one, but the hooded merganser won. So Mollie, will you tell us about kind of like your experience with Marsh Madness and maybe who gets your vote this year? Okay. Well, I should say my very first experience with Marsh Madness was right before I started this job. I was following the Delawarenerr on Instagram, and I was having so much fun watching as long as Marsh Madness progressed. But last year was my first time really getting to participate in it. And I will say that I really had my mud going all the way in Marsh Madness. It did have its most, successful run to date, so successful that we've decided to retire it from this year's competition. Unfortunately, but with that said, I, I think this is the river otters year. I think the river otters are ready and prepped. They've been training the last few years. I think they're ready to take the 2025 Marsh Madness. Yeah. Sadie, who do you have? I'm really rooting for the pumpkinseed. It's a tiny little fish that's just super round. And I think he's so silly. So I really want him to win. Akshay? Being the rock guy that I am, I'm definitely voting for the Delaware state mineral, Sillimanite. Go Sillimanite! And I have the pear shaped puffball. I think we've never seen a fungi win. Let's get a mushroom in here. I think its name is super cute. So I think that the pear shaped puffball has my vote. I will say that just for clarification sake, we hope that you all will join us on our social media page. We are in the middle of March, so we are in the middle of Marsh Madness. And this this episode was filmed prior to March, so we don't know if our votes have made it through the first round, but you can go ahead and let us know who you have taking the whole competition. And we're really excited to play along with all of you this year. Well, that's what the Skimmer Says about Marsh with Mollie. Thank you so much, Mollie, for joining us on today's episode. Tune in next month to learn all about birds with our stewardship coordinator, Christina Whiteman. See you next time. Bye.