Recent Sediment Accumulation in a Mangrove Forest and Its Relevance to Local Sea-Level Rise (Ilha Grande, Brazil)

2008 ◽  
Vol 242 ◽  
pp. 533-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian J. Sanders ◽  
Joseph M. Smoak ◽  
A. Sathy Naidu ◽  
Sambasiva R. Patchineelam
The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manel Leira ◽  
Maria C Freitas ◽  
Tania Ferreira ◽  
Anabela Cruces ◽  
Simon Connor ◽  
...  

We examine the Holocene environmental changes in a wet dune slack of the Portuguese coast, Poço do Barbarroxa de Baixo. Lithology, organic matter, biological proxies and high-resolution chronology provide estimations of sediment accumulation rates and changes in environmental conditions in relation to sea-level change and climate variability during the Holocene. Results show that the wet dune slack was formed 7.5 cal. ka BP, contemporaneous with the last stages of the rapid sea-level rise. This depositional environment formed under frequent freshwater flooding and water ponding that allowed the development and post-mortem accumulation of abundant plant remains. The wetland evolved into mostly palustrine conditions over the next 2000 years, until a phase of stabilization in relative sea-level rise, when sedimentation rates slowed down to 0.04 mm yr−1, between 5.3 and 2.5 cal. ka BP. Later, about 0.8 cal. ka BP, high-energy events, likely due to enhanced storminess and more frequent onshore winds, caused the collapse of the foredune above the wetlands’ seaward margin. The delicate balance between hydrology (controlled by sea-level rise and climate change), sediment supply and storminess modulates the habitat’s resilience and ecological stability. This underpins the relevance of integrating past records in coastal wet dune slacks management in a scenario of constant adaptation processes.


2012 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh R. Grenfell ◽  
Bruce W. Hayward ◽  
Ritsuo Nomura ◽  
Ashwaq T. Sabaa

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).


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 4957
Author(s):  
Sourav Samanta ◽  
Sugata Hazra ◽  
Partho P. Mondal ◽  
Abhra Chanda ◽  
Sandip Giri ◽  
...  

The Indian Sundarbans, together with Bangladesh, comprise the largest mangrove forest in the world. Reclamation of the mangroves in this region ceased in the 1930s. However, they are still subject to adverse environmental influences, such as sediment starvation due to migration of the main river channels in the Ganges–Brahmaputra delta over the last few centuries, cyclone landfall, wave action from the Bay of Bengal—changing hydrology due to upstream water diversion—and the pervasive effects of relative sea-level rise. This study builds on earlier work to assess changes from 2000 to 2020 in mangrove extent, genus composition, and mangrove ‘health’ indicators, using various vegetation indices derived from Landsat and MODIS satellite imagery by performing maximum likelihood supervised classification. We show that about 110 km2 of mangroves disappeared within the reserve forest due to erosion, and 81 km2 were gained within the inhabited part of Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) through plantation and regeneration. The gains are all outside the contiguous mangroves. However, they partially compensate for the losses of the contiguous mangroves in terms of carbon. Genus composition, analyzed by amalgamating data from published literature and ground-truthing surveys, shows change towards more salt-tolerant genus accompanied by a reduction in the prevalence of freshwater-loving Heiritiera, Nypa, and Sonneratia assemblages. Health indicators, such as the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI), show a monotonic trend of deterioration over the last two decades, which is more pronounced in the sea-facing parts of the mangrove forests. An increase in salinity, a temperature rise, and rainfall reduction in the pre-monsoon and the post-monsoon periods appear to have led to such degradation. Collectively, these results show a decline in mangrove area and health, which poses an existential threat to the Indian Sundarbans in the long term, especially under scenarios of climate change and sea-level rise. Given its unique values, the policy process should acknowledge and address these threats.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1837-1852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Duncan ◽  
Harry J. F. Owen ◽  
Julian R. Thompson ◽  
Heather J. Koldewey ◽  
Jurgenne H. Primavera ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
LeeAnn Haaf ◽  
Elizabeth Burke Watson ◽  
Tracy Elsey-Quirk ◽  
Kirk Raper ◽  
Angela Padeletti ◽  
...  

AbstractTidal marshes protect coastal communities from the effects of sea level rise and storms, yet they are vulnerable to prolonged inundation and submergence. Uncertainty regarding their vulnerability to sea level rise motivated the establishment of a monitoring network in the Delaware Estuary and Barnegat Bay. Using data collected through these efforts, we determined whether rates of tidal marsh sediment accumulation and elevation change exceeded local sea level rise and how these dynamics varied along geographic and environmental gradients. Marker horizons, surface elevation tables, elevation surveys, water level data, and water column suspended sediment concentrations were used to evaluate sea level rise vulnerability. Of 32 study sites, 75% had elevation change that did not keep pace with long-term rising sea levels (1969–2018) and 94% did not keep pace with recent sea level rise (2000–2018). Mean high water rose most rapidly in the freshwater tidal portion of the Delaware Estuary with rates nearing 1 cm yr-1 from 2000–2018. We noted that greater sediment accumulation rates occurred in marshes with large tidal ranges, low elevations, and high water column suspended sediment concentrations. We found correlations between rates of shallow subsidence, increasing salinity, and decreasing tidal range. Marsh elevation and water level surveys revealed significant variability in elevation capital and summer flooding patterns (12–67% inundation). However, rapid increases in mean high water over the past 19 years suggests that all marsh platforms currently sit at or below mean high water. Overall, these data suggest that tidal marshes in the Delaware Estuary and Barnegat Bay are vulnerable to submergence by current rates of sea-level rise. While we observed variability in marsh elevation capital, the absence of strong correlations between elevation trends and environmental parameters makes it difficult to identify clear patterns of sea level rise vulnerability among wetlands.


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