Salt-marsh erosion associated with hurricane landfall in southern New England in the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries

Plassche, O. van de; Erkens, Gilles; Vliet, Frank van; Brandsma, Joost; Borg, Klaas van der; Jong, A.F.M. de

doi:10.1130/g22598.1

Cited by 42 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Devegetated peat surfaces in the nearby marsh surface marked the source regions of the rafted marshballs. Field observations illustrated that the erosion occurred by scouring of the marsh surface, including the root mat, rather than by sediment resuspension as has been studied elsewhere (10,19). A similar process was suggested by van de Plassche et al (2004) to explain erosive contacts within the stratigraphy of a Connecticut wetland (20).…”

supporting

confidence: 70%

Hurricane-induced failure of low salinity wetlands

Howes

FitzGerald

Hughes

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

228

149

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During the 2005 hurricane season, the storm surge and wave field associated with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita eroded 527 km 2 of wetlands within the Louisiana coastal plain. Low salinity wetlands were preferentially eroded, while higher salinity wetlands remained robust and largely unchanged. Here we highlight geotechnical differences between the soil profiles of high and low salinity regimes, which are controlled by vegetation and result in differential erosion. In low salinity wetlands, a weak zone (shear strength 500–1450 Pa) was observed ∼30 cm below the marsh surface, coinciding with the base of rooting. High salinity wetlands had no such zone (shear strengths > 4500 Pa) and contained deeper rooting. Storm waves during Hurricane Katrina produced shear stresses between 425–3600 Pa, sufficient to cause widespread erosion of the low salinity wetlands. Vegetation in low salinity marshes is subject to shallower rooting and is susceptible to erosion during large magnitude storms; these conditions may be exacerbated by low inorganic sediment content and high nutrient inputs. The dramatic difference in resiliency of fresh versus more saline marshes suggests that the introduction of freshwater to marshes as part of restoration efforts may therefore weaken existing wetlands rendering them vulnerable to hurricanes.

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supporting

confidence: 70%

Hurricane-induced failure of low salinity wetlands

Howes

FitzGerald

Hughes

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

228

149

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“…Salt-marsh proxy records from the Gulf of Mexico (17,18) show stable sea level until AD 1000, followed by rise to a peak at AD 1200. In Connecticut, sea level rose rapidly at AD 1000 (19), although this record may be compromised by sedimentary hiatuses from hurricane erosion (20,21). In Iceland, sea level fell gradually from AD 500 to 1800, possibly as a result of regional steric influences (22).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate related sea-level variations over the past two millennia

Kemp

Horton

Donnelly

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

394

189

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We present new sea-level reconstructions for the past 2100 y based on salt-marsh sedimentary sequences from the US Atlantic coast. The data from North Carolina reveal four phases of persistent sea-level change after correction for glacial isostatic adjustment. Sea level was stable from at least BC 100 until AD 950. Sea level then increased for 400 y at a rate of 0.6 mm/y, followed by a further period of stable, or slightly falling, sea level that persisted until the late 19th century. Since then, sea level has risen at an average rate of 2.1 mm/y, representing the steepest century-scale increase of the past two millennia. This rate was initiated between AD 1865 and 1892. Using an extended semiempirical modeling approach, we show that these sea-level changes are consistent with global temperature for at least the past millennium.climate | ocean | late Holocene | salt marsh C limate and sea-level reconstructions encompassing the past 2,000 y provide a preanthropogenic context for understanding the nature and causes of current and future changes. Hemispheric and global mean temperature have been reconstructed using instrumental records supplemented with proxy data from natural climate archives (1, 2). This research has improved understanding of natural climate variability and suggests that modern warming is unprecedented in the past two millennia (1). In contrast, understanding of sea-level variability during this period is limited and the response to known climate deviations such as the Medieval Climate Anomaly, Little Ice Age, and 20th century warming is unknown. We reconstruct sea-level change over the past 2100 y using new salt-marsh proxy records and investigate the consistency of reconstructed sea level with global temperature using a semiempirical relationship that connects sea-level changes to mean surface temperature (3, 4). The new sea level proxy data constrain a multicentennial response term in the semiempirical model. Results and DiscussionSea-Level Data. Salt-marsh sediments and assemblages of foraminifera record former sea level because they are intrinsically linked to the frequency and duration of tidal inundation and keep pace with moderate rates of sea-level rise (5, 6). We developed transfer functions using a modern dataset of foraminifera (193 samples) from 10 salt marshes in North Carolina, USA (7). Transfer functions are empirically derived equations for quantitatively estimating past environmental conditions from paleontological data (8). The transfer functions were applied to foraminiferal assemblages preserved in 1 cm thick samples from two cores of salt-marsh sediment (Sand Point and Tump Point, North Carolina; Fig. 1) to estimate paleomarsh elevation (PME), which is the tidal elevation at which a sample formed with respect to its contemporary sea level (9). Unique vertical errors were calculated by the transfer functions for each PME estimate and were less than 0.1 m. Composite chronologies were developed using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14 C (conventional, high-precision, and bo...

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“…Land-falling tropical cyclones redistribute sediments in nearshore environments (e.g., Cahoon, 2006;van de Plassche et al, 2006;Williams and Flanagan, 2009). Some have argued that large hurricanes play an important (McKee and Cherry, 2009) and even dominant (Turner et al, 2006;Williams and Flanagan, 2009) role in providing sediment to nearshore environments.…”

Section: Stratigraphy and Sedimentologymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Storm surges and wave climates (including wave set-up and swash run-up) associated with tropical cyclones can cause large scale deposition, erosion and/or compaction of sediments and the disruption of vegetated substrates (Morgan et al, 1958;Liu and Fearn, 1993;Nyman et al, 1995;Donnelly et al, 2001;Cahoon, 2006;Sallenger et al, 2006;Turner et al, 2006;van de Plassche et al, 2006;Horton et al, 2009). A single hurricane has been shown to deposit large amounts of sediment, on the order of tens of centimeters (Nyman et al, 1995;Cahoon, 2006), in some cases maintaining the elevation of the marsh surface above sea level (Turner et al, 2006;McKee and Cherry, 2009) and the stability of barrier islands (Morton and Sallenger, 2003;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%