Info
Curriculum Vitae: CV
Email: mhensel@vims.edu
Google Scholar page
My research tests how human-induced biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation, and spread of invasive species affects food web dynamics and associated ecosystem multifunctionality in coastal ecosystems. Through experiments, surveys, and quantitative analyses I have found that changes in food web properties (e.g. loss of diversity, removal of predator guilds, etc.) propagate throughout marsh interaction networks to have wide-reaching effects on the resilience of these valuable habitats. In Southeastern US salt marshes I found that decreases in consumer diversity have strong negative effects on the ability for marshes to simultaneously perform multiple functions (Hensel and Silliman 2013). I also have found that an invasive consumer, the feral hog, weakens resilience and slows recovery of marshes to intense drought by altering the outcomes of positive interactions in SE marshes. Over the last few years, I have used experiments and broad surveys in marshes across New England to determine how cross-ecosystem predators (i.e. both bird and marine predators) affect the marsh community and multifunctionality. I have found that the identity and diversity of these predators, which are vulnerable to overfishing or habitat fragmentation, has previously unknown controls on multiple marsh ecosystem functions. Additionally, I have also built the first comprehensive New England salt marsh food web using published species interactions. I am using this food web to compare real world salt marsh food web properties to address monitoring and conservation goals in vulnerable and protected New England marshes (e.g. Plum Island LTER, Nantucket, Cape Cod National Seashore).
Publications
7. Hensel, M.J., Silliman, B.R., Hensel, E. and Byrnes, J.E.K. 2021. Feral hogs control brackish marsh plant communities over time. Ecology. e03572. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3572
6. Hensel, M. J. S., B. R. Silliman, J. van de Koppel, E. Hensel, S. J. Sharp, S. M. Crotty, and J. E. K. Byrnes. 2021. A large invasive consumer reduces coastal ecosystem resilience by disabling positive species interactions. Nature Communications 12:6290. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26504-4
5. C Angelini, SG van Montfrans, MJS Hensel, Q He, BR Silliman 2018.The importance of an underestimated grazer under climate change: how crab density, consumer competition, and physical stress affect salt marsh resilience. Oecologia 187 (1), 205-217
4. R Elahi, MI O’Connor, JEK Byrnes, J Dunic, BK Eriksson, MJS Hensel. 2015. Recent trends in local-scale marine biodiversity reflect community structure and human impacts. Current Biology 25 (14), 1938-1943
3. Lefcheck, J.S., Byrnes, J.E.K., Isbell, F., Gamfeldt, L., Griffin, J.N., Eisenhauer, N., Hensel, M.J.S., Hector, A., Cardinale, B.J., Duffy, J.E., 2015. Biodiversity enhances ecosystem multifunctionality across trophic levels and habitats. Nature Communications 6, 6936.
2. Soomdat, N.N., Griffin, J.N., McCoy, M.W., Hensel, M.J.S, Buhler, S.M., Chejanovski, Z., and B.R. Silliman. 2014. Independent and combined effects of multiple predators across ontogeny of a keystone grazer. Oikos. 123: 1081–1090.
1. Hensel, M.J.S., and B.R. Silliman. 2013. Consumer diversity across kingdoms supports multiple functions in a coastal ecosystem. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 110(51):20621–20626.
