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Influence of Physical Manipulations on Short-Term Salt Marsh Morphodynamics: Examples from the North and Mid-Atlantic Coast, USA

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An Erratum to this article was published on 13 August 2015

Abstract

Along the mid- and north Atlantic coasts of the USA, over 90 % of salt marshes have been ditched. Ditching was largely abandoned by the mid-twentieth century; however, techniques that create permanent shallow water pools for mosquito control and bird habitat are increasingly being applied to marshes of the USA and elsewhere. Salt marshes in Plum Island Sound, Massachusetts, and Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, were used to examine differences between areas that have been ditched and those altered to increase the density of shallow pools in water table dynamics, salinity, soil and porewater chemistry, as well as short-term sedimentation, accretion, and elevation change rates. We found that the area with plugged ditches, berms, and pools in Plum Island had less drainage, higher salinity and porewater sulfide and ammonium concentrations, and higher soil organic matter than the adjacent ditched area. Despite averaging 8 cm lower in elevation, the Plum Island ditched area had less sediment deposition and was composed of higher elevation plant species than the area with plugged ditches, berms, and shallow pools. Elevation increased in the ditched area at a rate of 3.2 ± 0.5 mm/year, but elevation change was variable in the area with pools. In Barnegat Bay, the marsh area with pools and ditches had less sediment deposition and surface accretion than the ditch-only area, associated, in part, with the higher elevation. An average elevation difference of 4.5 cm was associated with a sixfold difference in mineral sediment deposition. Temporal sediment deposition and surface accretion was important in the ditch-only area but was absent or muted in the area with numerous pools. Elevation increased in both marsh areas at an average rate of 1.8 ± 0.8 mm/year, less than half the long-term average local rate of sea-level rise. Our results illustrate how physical manipulations including changes to tidal hydrology and surface topography interact with elevation to influence short-term biophysical feedbacks.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service through the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit. The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). We would like to thank D. Cahoon and J. Lynch who provided advice, insight, and assistance on the experimental design for surface elevation tables and marker horizons. V. Turner at Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), NJ, and S. Janson at Parker River NWR, MA, collected long-term SET data. Y. Laskaris of USFWS Region 5 Salt Marsh LMRD program compiled and helped analyzed the long-term SET data. Refuge managers, V. Rettig at Forsythe and N. Pau at Parker River, provided help and cooperation. We would like to thank M. Brannin who provided expertise in surveying and GIS, V. Unger, L. Zaoudeh, M. Shafer, W. Whalon, A. Tarbous, P. Zelanko, and W.T. Quirk for the field and lab assistance. L. Perez provided time-series GIS analyses of water area. P. Zelanko and P. Kiry conducted chemical analyses. B. Frezel cut PVC wells for probes and helped in the field. W.T. Quirk fabricated sediment plates, boardwalks, and a marsh cart. M. Leck and R. DeLaune graciously edited and improved the paper. Two anonymous reviewers provided helpful commentary and suggestions.

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  1. Tracy Elsey-Quirk

    Present address: Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, 3173 Energy, Coast and Environment Building, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA

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  1. Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science, Drexel University, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA, 19103, USA

    Tracy Elsey-Quirk

  2. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, 321 Port Rd., Wells, ME, 04090, USA

    Susan C. Adamowicz

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Elsey-Quirk, T., Adamowicz, S.C. Influence of Physical Manipulations on Short-Term Salt Marsh Morphodynamics: Examples from the North and Mid-Atlantic Coast, USA. Estuaries and Coasts 39, 423–439 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-015-0013-9

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