Glenn Guntenspergen, Ph.D.
Science and Products
Impacts of climate change on land-use and wetland productivity in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America
Wetland productivity in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America is closely linked to climate. A warmer and drier climate, as predicted, will negatively affect the productivity of PPR wetlands and the services they provide. The effect of climate change on wetland productivity, however, will not only depend on natural processes (e.g.,...
Rashford, Benjamin S.; Adams, Richard M.; Wu, Jun; Voldseth, Richard A.; Guntenspergen, Glenn R.; Werner, Brett; Johnson, W. Carter Non-linear responses of glaciated prairie wetlands to climate warming
The response of ecosystems to climate warming is likely to include threshold events when small changes in key environmental drivers produce large changes in an ecosystem. Wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) are especially sensitive to climate variability, yet the possibility that functional changes may occur more rapidly with warming than...
Johnson, W. Carter; Werner, Brett; Guntenspergen, Glenn R. The vulnerability of Indo-Pacific mangrove forests to sea-level rise
Sea-level rise can threaten the long-term sustainability of coastal communities and valuable ecosystems such as coral reefs, salt marshes and mangroves. Mangrove forests have the capacity to keep pace with sea-level rise and to avoid inundation through vertical accretion of sediments, which allows them to maintain wetland soil elevations suitable...
Lovelock, Catherine E.; Cahoon, Donald R.; Friess, Daniel A.; Guntenspergen, Glenn R.; Krauss, Ken W.; Reef, Ruth; Rogers, Kerrylee; Saunders, Megan L.; Sidik, Frida; Swales, Andrew; Saintilan, Neil; Thuyen, Le Xuan; Triet, Tran Sediment transport-based metrics of wetland stability
Despite the importance of sediment availability on wetland stability, vulnerability assessments seldom consider spatiotemporal variability of sediment transport. Models predict that the maximum rate of sea level rise a marsh can survive is proportional to suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and accretion. In contrast, we find that SSC and...
Ganju, Neil K.; Kirwan, Matthew L.; Dickhudt, Patrick J.; Guntenspergen, Glenn R.; Cahoon, Donald R.; Kroeger, Kevin D. Response of plant productivity to experimental flooding in a stable and a submerging marsh
Recent models of tidal marsh evolution rely largely on the premise that plants are most productive at an optimal flooding regime that occurs when soil elevations are somewhere between mean sea level and mean high tide. Here, we use 4 years of manipulative “marsh organ” flooding experiments to test the generality of this conceptual...
Kirwan, Matthew L.; Guntenspergen, Glenn R. Use of structured decision making to identify monitoring variables and management priorities for salt marsh ecosystems
Most salt marshes in the USA have been degraded by human activities, and coastal managers are faced with complex choices among possible actions to restore or enhance ecosystem integrity. We applied structured decision making (SDM) to guide selection of monitoring variables and management priorities for salt marshes within the National Wildlife...
Neckles, Hilary A.; Lyons, James E.; Guntenspergen, Glenn R.; Shriver, W. Gregory; Adamowicz, Susan C. Connecting the dots: a collaborative USGS-NPS effort to expand the utility of monitoring data
The Natural Resource Challenge (National Park Service 1999) was a call to action. It constituted a mandate for monitoring based on the twin premises that (1) natural resources in national parks require active management and stewardship if we are to protect them from gradual degradation, and (2) we cannot protect what we do not understand. The...
Grace, James B.; Schoolmaster, Donald R.; Schweiger, E. William; Mitchell, Brian R.; Miller, Kathryn; Guntenspergen, Glenn R. Threshold concepts: implications for the management of natural resources
Threshold concepts can have broad relevance in natural resource management. However, the concept of ecological thresholds has not been widely incorporated or adopted in management goals. This largely stems from the uncertainty revolving around threshold levels and the post hoc analyses that have generally been used to identify them. Natural...
Guntenspergen, Glenn R.; Gross, John Temperature sensitivity of organic-matter decay in tidal marshes
Approximately half of marine carbon sequestration takes place in coastal wetlands, including tidal marshes, where organic matter contributes to soil elevation and ecosystem persistence in the face of sea-level rise. The long-term viability of marshes and their carbon pools depends, in part, on how the balance between productivity and decay...
Kirwan, Matthew L.; Guntenspergen, Glenn R.; Langley, J.A. Applying threshold concepts to conservation management of dryland ecosystems: Case studies on the Colorado Plateau
Ecosystems may occupy functionally distinct alternative states, some of which are more or less desirable from a management standpoint. Transitions from state to state are usually associated with a particular trigger or sequence of triggers, such as the addition or subtraction of a disturbance. Transitions are often not linear, rather it is common...
Guntenspergen, Glenn R.; Bowker, Matthew A.; Miller, Mark E.; Garman, Steven L.; Belote, Travis Evidence for 20th century climate warming and wetland drying in the North American Prairie Pothole Region
The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America is a globally important resource that provides abundant and valuable ecosystem goods and services in the form of biodiversity, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood attenuation, and water and forage for agriculture. Numerous studies have found these wetlands, which number in the millions...
Werner, B.A.; Johnson, W. Carter; Guntenspergen, Glenn R. The impact of sea-level rise on organic matter decay rates in Chesapeake Bay brackish tidal marshes
The balance between organic matter production and decay determines how fast coastal wetlands accumulate soil organic matter. Despite the importance of soil organic matter accumulation rates in influencing marsh elevation and resistance to sea-level rise, relatively little is known about how decomposition rates will respond to sea-level rise. Here...
Kirwanm, M.L.; Langley, J.A.; Guntenspergen, Gleen R.; Megonigal, J.P.