GCE Announcement
Publication News
New paper from Pennings lab: Centrifugal organization of southeastern USA salt marsh plant communities
Steve and collaborators recently published a paper on "centrifugal organization" of salt marsh plant communities. What centrifugal organization means is that there is a single optimum habitat (in this case where Juncus occurs) but more than one poor or stressful habitat (in this case, regularly flooded areas where Spartina dominates, and very salty areas where Batis and Sarcocornia dominate). All the species would like to live where Juncus does, but most are excluded from the optimum habitat by competition. We argue that similar processes occur in New England, but the salty habitat is only revealed after wrack disturbance, and is temporary, whereas in low latitudes it is permanent (salt pans).
Long-term friends of the GCE will recognize some of the coauthors from the distant past: Alana Lynes, Christina Richards and Tracy Buck. That's because the data for this paper were collected back in the long-ago time, but Steve had a lot of trouble organizing the manuscript and getting it out the door. He's very happy to finally see it published.
The paper is in the recent issue of Estuaries and Coasts (Vol 49 issue 6). Read it here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12237-026-01818-y
(Contact Steve Pennings for additional information)
submitted Oct 08, 2026
