Hurricane-Induced Sedimentation Improves Marsh Resilience and Vegetation Vigor under High Rates of Relative Sea Level Rise

Baustian, Joseph J.; Mendelssohn, Irving A.

doi:10.1007/s13157-015-0670-2

Cited by 56 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Our results are consistent with a well-established positive relationship between productivity and shallow marsh burial. From previous studies of hurricane deposits, a deposition of 5-10 cm was found to lead to an increase in aboveground S. alterniflora productivity of 20-60% (Baustian and Mendelssohn 2015) and a deposition of 3-8 cm was found to cause an~50% increase in aboveground marsh plant biomass (McKee and Cherry 2009), which matches well with the~50% increase in aboveground biomass we observed at the low site for a burial depth of 5 cm (Fig. 4A).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…While most recent work highlights the positive effect of hurricane‐deposited sediment on aboveground productivity and resilience to sea level rise (McKee and Cherry ; Baustian and Mendelssohn ), our results indicate that there is an optimum burial thickness for enhanced plant biomass. The large (40–120%) increase in productivity we observe is maximized for burial depths of 5–10 cm, while burial greater than or equal to 30 cm resulted in mortality and no recovery (Fig.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 73%

“…; Mendelssohn and Kuhn ) and experimental sediment additions (Fragoso and Spencer ) have found a similar positive relationship between burial and marsh plant productivity. Recent work suggests that the mechanism for increased primary productivity associated with burial could be related to an increase in nutrient levels from ammonium and phosphate that is sorbed to the clay fraction of the deposited sediments (Baustian and Mendelssohn ). This explanation may not be applicable for our study, where the sediment added was >99% sand from a nutrient poor barrier island beach environment (Osgood and Zieman ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3B). This demonstrates the relative importance of underground growth as a mechanism for plant recovery in response to burial and suggests that studies that only use measurements of aboveground biomass as a proxy for plant response to burial (Mendelssohn and Kuhn 2003;Baustian and Mendelssohn 2015) likely underestimate the level of recovery. We did not observe a root mat within the sand layer of the 30 and 60 cm burial treatments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optimal hurricane overwash thickness for maximizing marsh resilience to sea level rise

Walters

Kirwan

2016

Ecology and Evolution

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The interplay between storms and sea level rise, and between ecology and sediment transport governs the behavior of rapidly evolving coastal ecosystems such as marshes and barrier islands. Sediment deposition during hurricanes is thought to increase the resilience of salt marshes to sea level rise by increasing soil elevation and vegetation productivity. We use mesocosms to simulate burial of Spartina alterniflora during hurricane‐induced overwash events of various thickness (0–60 cm), and find that adventitious root growth within the overwash sediment layer increases total biomass by up to 120%. In contrast to most previous work illustrating a simple positive relationship between burial depth and vegetation productivity, our work reveals an optimum burial depth (5–10 cm) beyond which burial leads to plant mortality. The optimum burial depth increases with flooding frequency, indicating that storm deposition ameliorates flooding stress, and that its impact on productivity will become more important under accelerated sea level rise. Our results suggest that frequent, low magnitude storm events associated with naturally migrating islands may increase the resilience of marshes to sea level rise, and in turn, slow island migration rates. Synthesis: We find that burial deeper than the optimum results in reduced growth or mortality of marsh vegetation, which suggests that future increases in overwash thickness associated with more intense storms and artificial heightening of dunes could lead to less resilient marshes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 73%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optimal hurricane overwash thickness for maximizing marsh resilience to sea level rise

Walters

Kirwan

2016

Ecology and Evolution

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“…An average yearly total of 5.6 million tons of inorganic sedimentation was determined from tropical cyclones on Louisiana wetlands, deemed an important component in coastal land-building [39]. In addition to the role and contribution of inorganic sediments toward increasing wetland surface elevation and providing stability to marsh substrate, Baustian and Mendelssohn [40] discovered their positive effects on wetland primary production and resilience, partly from the decline in sulfide due to a lessened influence of relative sea level rise. The interaction between inorganic sediment deposition and overall wetland health and stability is complex, however.…”

Section: The Role Of Hurricanes As "Land-builders" For Coastal Louisianamentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetland Accretion Rates Along Coastal Louisiana: Spatial and Temporal Variability in Light of Hurricane Isaac’s Impacts

Bianchette

Liu

Qiang

et al. 2015

Water

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Abstract:The wetlands of the southern Louisiana coast are disappearing due to a host of environmental stressors. Thus, it is imperative to analyze the spatial and temporal variability of wetland vertical accretion rates. A key question in accretion concerns the role of landfalling hurricanes as a land-building agent, due to their propensity to deposit significant volumes of inorganic sediments. Since 1996, thousands of accretion measurements have been made at 390 sites across coastal Louisiana as a result of a regional monitoring network, called the Coastal Reference Monitoring System (CRMS).We utilized this dataset to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of accretion by mapping rates during time periods before, around, and after the landfall of Hurricane Isaac (2012). This analysis is vital for quantifying the role of hurricanes as a land-building agent and for understanding the main mechanism causing heightened wetland accretion. The results show that accretion rates averaged about 2.89 cm/year from stations sampled before Isaac, 4.04 cm/year during the period encompassing Isaac, and 2.38 cm/year from sites established and sampled after Isaac. Accretion rates attributable to Isaac's effects were therefore 40% and 70% greater than before and after the event, respectively, indicating the event's importance toward coastal land-building. Accretion associated with Isaac was highest at sites located 70 kilometers from the storm track, particularly those near the Mississippi River and its adjacent distributaries and lakes. This spatial pattern of elevated accretion rates indicates that freshwater flooding from fluvial channels, rather than storm surge from the sea per se, is the main mechanism responsible for increased wetland accretion. This significance of riverine flooding has implications toward future coastal restoration policies and practices.

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Contributions of organic and inorganic matter to sediment volume and accretion in tidal wetlands at steady state

et al. 2016

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A mixing model derived from first principles describes the bulk density (BD) of intertidal wetland sediments as a function of loss on ignition (LOI). The model assumes that the bulk volume of sediment equates to the sum of self‐packing volumes of organic and mineral components or BD = 1/[LOI/k1 + (1‐LOI)/k2], where k1 and k2 are the self‐packing densities of the pure organic and inorganic components, respectively. The model explained 78% of the variability in total BD when fitted to 5075 measurements drawn from 33 wetlands distributed around the conterminous United States. The values of k1 and k2 were estimated to be 0.085 ± 0.0007 g cm−3 and 1.99 ± 0.028 g cm−3, respectively. Based on the fitted organic density (k1) and constrained by primary production, the model suggests that the maximum steady state accretion arising from the sequestration of refractory organic matter is ≤ 0.3 cm yr−1. Thus, tidal peatlands are unlikely to indefinitely survive a higher rate of sea‐level rise in the absence of a significant source of mineral sediment. Application of k2 to a mineral sediment load typical of East and eastern Gulf Coast estuaries gives a vertical accretion rate from inorganic sediment of 0.2 cm yr−1. Total steady state accretion is the sum of the parts and therefore should not be greater than 0.5 cm yr−1 under the assumptions of the model. Accretion rates could deviate from this value depending on variation in plant productivity, root:shoot ratio, suspended sediment concentration, sediment‐capture efficiency, and episodic events.

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Hurricane-Induced Sedimentation Improves Marsh Resilience and Vegetation Vigor under High Rates of Relative Sea Level Rise

Cited by 56 publications

References 32 publications

Optimal hurricane overwash thickness for maximizing marsh resilience to sea level rise

Optimal hurricane overwash thickness for maximizing marsh resilience to sea level rise

Wetland Accretion Rates Along Coastal Louisiana: Spatial and Temporal Variability in Light of Hurricane Isaac’s Impacts

Contributions of organic and inorganic matter to sediment volume and accretion in tidal wetlands at steady state

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