| | Accession Number | 5003538 |
| | Title | Response of coastal ecosystems to sea-level rise: assessing wetland elevation changes, |
| | potential for submergence, and management options |
| | Project Description | This project will accomplish the following objectives: (1) establish a comprehensive geographic |
| | network of elevation monitoring sites on Federal coastal wetlands to give an advance warning of |
| | change, (2) determine the long-term potential for submergence of Federal coastal wetlands |
| | through modeling, (3) establish standard measurement protocols among the coastal wetland |
| | research community to make data from different sites comparable and allow for evaluation of |
| | global trends in the vulnerability of coastal wetlands to submergence, (4) determine the critical |
| | subsurface processes (biological, hydrological, and geological) controlling elevation change in |
| | coastal wetlands to enable development of appropriate management strategies, and (5) determine |
| | the impact of current wetland management and restoration practices on wetland elevation changes |
| | and the ability of the wetlands to build vertically at a pace equal to relative sea-level rise. These |
| | objectives will be accomplished by use of a field approach developed by Cahoon and colleagues |
| | which is based on direct and simultaneous measures of vertical accretion and soil elevation |
| | change. Elevation is measured from temporary benchmarks using a Sedimentation-Erosion Table |
| | (SET). Vertical accretion is measured from visible soil marker horizons established at the same |
| | time as the initial elevation readings. This approach allows us to not only (1) quantitatively and |
| | directly test whether or not vertical accretion is a good surrogate for elevation change, and (2) |
| | calculate an elevation deficit if accretion and elevation are not equal, but to also (3) calculate the |
| | amount of subsidence (accretion minus elevation change) in the top few meters of the substrate |
| | (i.e., shallow subsidence) and (4) distinguish the effects of surface (e.g., sediment deposition and |
| | erosion) versus subsurface processes (e.g., soil compaction, root growth-decomposition, pore |
| | water storage) on wetland elevation. This latter ability is of particular importance to wetland |
| | managers when developing a management strategy to accomodate future increases in sea level. |
| | Findings will be used in models to predict the long-term (>50 years) response of wetland elevation |
| | to sea-level rise. |
| | Keywords | accretion, coastal wetlands, compaction, elevation, monitoring, sea-level rise, |
| | sedimentation-erosion table, submergence, subsidence, wetland management, wetland |
| | restoration, |
| | Principal | Donald R Cahoon, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: don_cahoon@usgs.gov; |
| | Investigators |
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