SPCMSC scientists publish new paper on shoreline erosion and sediment deposition

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Salt marshes provide essential ecosystem services to communities and the environment including protecting infrastructure from storms, absorbing atmospheric carbon, and serving as wildlife habitat. These valuable ecosystems are under increasing threat of loss due to both natural and anthropogenic (human-influenced)  impacts. Marshes can experience a lot of wave action, and the sediments transported by these actions are either pushed up into the marsh or pulled away from the shore into the estuary. If sediments keep getting eroded away from the marsh system, the marsh may not be able to keep pace with future changes such as sea-level rise.

Research Ecologist Dr. Kathryn Smith and colleagues from the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center investigated marsh sediment budgets at seasonal, annual, episodic, and decadal time scales within the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Grand Bay, Mississippi. They evaluated sediment deposition and erosion by measuring how much sediment accumulated using experimental tiles and sediment cores near the marsh shoreline, and measured shoreline erosion rates by using Global Positioning System (GPS) and historic maps. They were also able to compare accumulation and erosion before and after a tropical storm (Hurricane Nate) made landfall in October 2017 during the study, providing an episodic perspective to the project. 

In addition to improving our understanding of marsh sediment dynamics, these data are useful for providing baseline information for marsh vulnerability analyses, carbon budgets, and impact assessment of restoration and mitigation plans.

To read the journal article, visit: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2021.107829.

Read what else is new at the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.