Panel 2: the decay system

The smooth-cordgrass marsh supports a vigorous decay system with high rates of secondary production. Leaf blades of the grass (Spartina alterniflora) die in succession from bases toward tips of shoots, and are not abscised, so they decay as standing-dead material. Eventually the lower blades are weakened by microbial lignocellulolytic activity and invertebrate shredding, and they bend down to the sediment, or fragment to particles that fall to the sediment.

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