The smaller, light brown, 3-septate ascospores in this image are those of Phaeosphaeria halima. The larger, germinating ascospore in the center is of Phaeosphaeria spartinicola. P. halima sometimes largely or wholly replaces P. spartinicola in the smooth-cordgrass-blade decomposition system. At one point it seemed that P. halima replaced P. spartinicola when human nitrogen subsidy or toxic-pollutant input was large (Newell & Wall, Mycologia 90:777- 784, 1998). However, this was not confirmed by subsequent examinations of urban/industrial saltmarsh sites (Newell, Wall & Maruya, in review). There is a hint that P. halima replaces P. spartinicola in decaying blades high on older decaying shoots during winter and spring (see Newell et al., Aquatic Botany 60:325-335, 1998, for a description of dead-shoot demography).