Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

SPCMSC Research Ecologist Kathryn Smith first-authored a recently published manuscript titled "Shifts in marsh erosion, migration, and wave exposure over nearly two centuries of sea-level rise in the Gulf of Mexico."

Media
Labeled graphic map of study area with land to north and water to south, showing varying levels of marsh habitat change.
Map showing 1848-2022 marsh habitat change analysis results, Grand Bay, Mississippi and Alabama

This published research is one of the first studies to estimate coastal marsh shoreline erosion and upland boundary migration rates over a nearly two century time span in the northern Gulf of America. The authors compare these rates to coastal land loss rates and relate them to physical changes in barrier island movement and wave exposure. The paper highlights how marsh shoreline erosion has increased over time. While marsh migration has occurred at similar rates as shoreline erosion, hotspots of marsh erosion have caused an overall loss of marsh habitat. The westward movement and reduction of offshore barrier islands have increased marsh shoreline exposure to waves, and management actions that reduce wave exposure may slow marsh loss. 

Get Our News

These items are in the RSS feed format (Really Simple Syndication) based on categories such as topics, locations, and more. You can install and RSS reader browser extension, software, or use a third-party service to receive immediate news updates depending on the feed that you have added. If you click the feed links below, they may look strange because they are simply XML code. An RSS reader can easily read this code and push out a notification to you when something new is posted to our site.

Was this page helpful?