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The focus of my research is basic and applied coastal plant ecology. My primary research interests are 1) the influence of environmental constraints, natural and human-induced, on plant distribution and productivity and 2) the ecophysiological responses that allow coastal vegetation to adapt to these environmental limitations. More specifically, my recent research has centered on the effects of salinity and flooding on the growth and adaptive responses of various fresh and salt marsh plant species, the development of stressor-specific and integrative indicators of sublethal stress in wetland vegetation, an analysis of the causes of vegetation dieback in coastal marshes, and the effects of disturbance on the ecology and restoration of coastal vegetation. I am especially interested in research that emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach in addressing ecological questions.
McKee, K. L., I. A. Mendelssohn, and M. D. Materne. 2004. Acute salt marsh dieback in the Mississippi River delta plain; a drought-induced phenomenon? Global Ecology and Biogeography 13:65-73
Lin, Q., Mendelssohn, I. A., Bryner, N. P., Walton, W. D. 2005. In-Situ Burning of Oil in Coastal Marshes: 1. Vegetation Recovery and Soil Temperature as a Function of Water Depth, Oil Type and Marsh Type, Environmental Sciences and Technology, 39:1848-1854.
H. Brix, and S. L. Miao. 2005. Growth and nutrient responses of Eloecharis
cellulose (Cyperaceae) to phosphate level and redox intensity. American Journal
of Botany 92:1457-1466.
Slocum, M. G., I. A. Mendelssohn, and N. L. Kuhn. 2005. Effects of sediment
slurry enrichment on salt marsh rehabilitation: Plant and soil responses over
seven years. Estuaries 28:519-528.
Rosas, H. R., P. Moreno-Casasola, and I. A. Mendelssohn. 2005. Effects of an African grass invasion on vegetation, soil and interstitial water characteristics in a tropical freshwater marsh in La Mancha, Veracruz (Mexico). Journal of Plant Interactions. 1:187-195.
Silliman, B. R., J. van de Koppel, M. D. Bertness, L. E. Stanton, and I. A. Mendelssohn. 2005. Drought, snails, and large-scale die-off of southern U.S. salt marshes. Science 310:1803-1806.
Busch, J., I. A. Mendelssohn, B. Lorenzen, H. Brix, and S. Miao. 2006. A rhizotron to study root growth under flooded conditions. Flora 201:429-439.
Mendelssohn, I. A. and D. Batzer. 2006. Abiotic constraints for wetland plants and animals, pp.82-114. In: Ecology of Freshwater and Estuarine Wetlands (D. P. Batzer and R. R. Sharitz, eds.), University of California Press, Berkley, CA.