Interpreting Sea Level Rise and Rates of Vertical Marsh Accretion in a Southern New England Tidal Salt Marsh

1998 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.A. Orson ◽  
R.S. Warren ◽  
W.A. Niering
Keyword(s):  
Salt Marsh ◽  
New England ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Tidal Salt Marsh ◽  
Southern New England ◽  
Marsh Accretion

scholarly journals Top-down and bottom-up controls on southern New England salt marsh crab populations

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth B. Raposa ◽  
Richard A. McKinney ◽  
Cathleen Wigand ◽  
Jeffrey W. Hollister ◽  
Cassie Lovall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Salt Marsh ◽  
New England ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Salt Marshes ◽  
Fiddler Crab ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Southern New England ◽  
England Salt Marsh ◽  
Crab Abundance

Southern New England salt marsh vegetation and habitats are changing rapidly in response to sea-level rise. At the same time, fiddler crab (Uca spp.) distributions have expanded and purple marsh crab (Sesarma reticulatum) grazing on creekbank vegetation has increased. Sea-level rise and reduced predation pressure drive these changing crab populations but most studies focus on one species; there is a need for community-level assessments of impacts from multiple crab species. There is also a need to identify additional factors that can affect crab populations. We sampled crabs and environmental parameters in four Rhode Island salt marshes in 2014 and compiled existing data to quantify trends in crab abundance and multiple factors that potentially affect crabs. Crab communities were dominated by fiddler and green crabs (Carcinus maenas); S. reticulatum was much less abundant. Burrow sizes suggest that Uca is responsible for most burrows. On the marsh platform, burrows and Carcinus abundance were negatively correlated with elevation, soil moisture, and soil percent organic matter and positively correlated with soil bulk density. Uca abundance was negatively correlated with Spartina patens cover and height and positively correlated with Spartina alterniflora cover and soil shear strength. Creekbank burrow density increased dramatically between 1998 and 2016. During the same time, fishing effort and the abundance of birds that prey on crabs decreased, and water levels increased. Unlike in other southern New England marshes where recreational overfishing is hypothesized to drive increasing marsh crab abundance, we propose that changes in crab abundance were likely unrelated to recreational finfish over-harvest; instead, they better track sea-level rise and changing abundances of alternate predators, such as birds. We predict that marsh crab abundance will continue to expand with ongoing sea-level rise, at least until inundation thresholds for crab survival are exceeded.

A foraminiferal proxy record of 20th century sea-level rise in the Manukau Harbour, New Zealand

2012 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh R. Grenfell ◽  
Bruce W. Hayward ◽  
Ritsuo Nomura ◽  
Ashwaq T. Sabaa
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Salt Marsh ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Tide Gauge ◽  
Sediment Accumulation ◽  
Proxy Record ◽  
Tide Gauge Record ◽  
Tidal Salt Marsh

The present study aimed to extract a sea-level history from northern New Zealand salt-marsh sediments using a foraminiferal proxy, and to extend beyond the longest nearby tide-gauge record. Transects through high-tidal salt marsh at Puhinui, Manukau Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand, indicate a zonation of dominant foraminifera in the following order (with increasing elevation): Ammonia spp.–Elphidium excavatum, Ammotium fragile, Miliammina fusca, Haplophragmoides wilberti–Trochammina inflata, Trochamminita salsa–Miliammina obliqua. The transect sample faunas are used as a training set to generate a transfer function for estimating past tidal elevations in two short cores nearby. Heavy metal, 210Pb and 137Cs isotope analyses provide age models that indicate 35 cm of sediment accumulation since ~1890 AD. The first proxy-based 20th century rates of sea-level rise from New Zealand’s North Island at 0.28 ± 0.05 cm year–1 and 0.33 ± 0.07 cm year–1 are estimated. These are faster than the nearby Auckland tide gauge for the same interval (0.17 ± 0.1 cm year–1), but comparable to a similar proxy record from southern New Zealand (0.28 ± 0.05 cm year–1) and to satellite-based observations of global sea-level rise since 1993 (0.31 ± 0.07 cm year–1).

scholarly journals Importance of Biogeomorphic and Spatial Properties in Assessing a Tidal Salt Marsh Vulnerability to Sea-level Rise

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 941-951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen M. Thorne ◽  
Deborah L. Elliott-Fisk ◽  
Glenn D. Wylie ◽  
William M. Perry ◽  
John Y. Takekawa
Keyword(s):  
Salt Marsh ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Tidal Salt Marsh ◽  
Spatial Properties

scholarly journals Salt Marsh Accretion With and Without Deep Soil Subsidence as a Proxy for Sea-Level Rise

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han F. van Dobben ◽  
Alma V. de Groot ◽  
Jan P. Bakker
Keyword(s):  
Salt Marsh ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Water Depth ◽  
Salt Marshes ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Deep Soil ◽  
Flooding Regime ◽  
Soil Subsidence ◽  
Marsh Accretion

AbstractThe relation between salt marsh accretion and flooding regime was quantified by statistical analysis of a unique dataset of accretion measurements using sedimentation-erosion bars, on three barrier islands in the Dutch Wadden Sea over a period of c. 15 years. On one of the islands, natural gas extraction caused deep soil subsidence, which resulted in gradually increasing flooding frequency, duration, and depth, and can thus be seen as a proxy for sea-level rise. Special attention was paid to effects of small-scale variation e.g., in distance to tidal creeks or marsh edges, elevation of the marsh surface, and presence of livestock. Overall mean accretion rate was 0.44 ± 0.0005 cm year−1, which significantly exceeded the local rate of sea-level rise of 0.25 ± 0.009 cm year−1. A multiple regression approach was used to detect the combined effect of flooding regime and the local environment. The most important flooding-related factors that enhance accretion are mean water depth during flooding and overall mean water depth, but local accretion strongly decreases with increasing distance to the nearest creek or to the salt marsh edge. Mean water depth during flooding can be seen as an indicator for storm intensity, while overall mean water depth is a better indicator for storm frequency. The regression parameters were used to run a simple model simulating the effect of various sea-level scenarios on accretion and show that, even under extreme scenarios of sea-level rise, these salt marshes can probably persist for the next 100 years, although the higher parts may experience more frequent inundation.

Accretion of a New England (U.S.A.) Salt Marsh in Response to Inlet Migration, Storms, and Sea-level Rise

1997 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 717-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.T. Roman ◽  
J.A. Peck ◽  
J.R. Allen ◽  
J.W. King ◽  
P.G. Appleby
Keyword(s):  
Salt Marsh ◽  
New England ◽  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
And Sea Level
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document