Surface Infiltration in Salt Marshes: Theory, Measurement, and Biogeochemical Implications

Hemond, Harold F.; Nuttle, William K.; Burke, Roger; Stolzenbach, Keith D.

doi:10.1029/wr020i005p00591

Cited by 70 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Good et al 1982) led to investigations of potential pathways for the large below-ground carbon and nitrogen pools to contribute to wetland export. Mechanisms for belowground to tidal water transfers have necessarily focused on dissolved export through the marsh surface (Gardner 1975, Hemond et al 1984 or via drainage of porewater through creekbanks (Agosta 1985, Jordan & Correll 1985, Yelverton & Hackney 1986, although loss of particulate and dissolved material generated below-ground has been found to be facilitated by bioturbation, particularly by fiddler crabs (Katz 1980, Montague 1982.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Methods include geochemical budgets (Howarth & Teal 19791, physical budgets (e.g heat;Redfield 1965) and hydrologic models generally based upon Darcy's law (Jordan & Correll 1985, Yelverton & Hackney 1986, Harvey et al 1987, Nuttle 1988 and measures with dyes (Nestler 1977b, Jordan & Correll 1985, surface chambers (Hemond et al 1984, Yelverton & Hackney 1986, and changes In wet weight of sediment (Valiela et al 1978, Howarth et al 1983, Agosta 1985. Although some of the methods appear to be insensitive or prone to artifact (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Porewater drainage and dissolved organic carbon and nutrient losses through the intertidal creek-banks of a New England salt marsh

Howes¹,

Goehringer²

1994

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Drainage of interstitial water from creekbanks vegetated by tall Spartina alterniflora was directly measured using an in situ chamber technique over complete tidal cycles throughout the year in the Great Sippewissett Salt Marsh, Massachusetts, USA. Estimates of porewater seepage into chambers compared favorably with water exchange calculated from parallel measurements of water table excursion and sediment-specific yield when plants were inactive. Upon low tide exposure of the marsh surface, there was a n initial large loss of porewater, then a continuously declining discharge which paralleled the pattern of water table drop in the adjacent creekbank sediments. Seepage losses were related to the vertical height of the creekbank with banks ranging from 0.5 to 1.0 m showing more than a 3-fold greater discharge than those only 0.25 to 0.5 m high on a linear basis and nearly 2-fold greater on an area1 basis Strong seasonal variations in seepage volume and extent of low tide water table excursion occurred in the tall S. alterniflora zone. In summer when water removal was through both drainage and evapotransp~ration, the water table fell at almost twice the rate as in winter when drainage predominated. The annually averaged volume of creekbank seepage was 15.2 1 m" or 8.9 1 m-' per tide. The magnitude of the seepage pathway for organlc matter and nutrient export from marsh sediments was assessed from simultaneous measurements of seepage volume and concentrations of DOC, NH,', N 0 3 -+ N 0 2 -, and Pod3-in both seepage and tidal waters. Sedirnents underlying tall S. alterniflora showed a net export of DOC of 1080 mm01 C m-2 yr-' (544 mm01 m-' yr-l), NH,' 115 mm01 m-' yr-l (57 mm01 m -' yr-'), and NO3-+NO2-6.5 mm01 m-2 yr-' (4.7 mm01 m-' yr-l), while Pod3' was imported from tidal waters. Measured dissolved inorganic nitrogen losses in drainage waters represent only about 3% of the inorganic nitrogen export from this marsh. While porewater drainage was a major factor in the water budget of creekbank areas and represents a potential aeration subsidy to sediment oxidation, it was not found to be a significant pathway for the transfer of organic carbon or inorganic nutrients from the Spartina root zone to tidal waters.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Porewater drainage and dissolved organic carbon and nutrient losses through the intertidal creek-banks of a New England salt marsh

Howes¹,

Goehringer²

1994

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…In many marshes, drainage is only significant within the narrow 10 to 15 m wide band of relatively tall Spartina alterniflora which borders the creeks (Gardner 1975, Nuttle 1988, Nuttle & Hemond 1988, while in other marshes no significant drainage occurs outside of crab burrows and cracks in the sediment (Nestler 1977). In the stagnant inner marsh, which comprises 80 to 9Onil of the total vegetated area of North Inlet, South Carolina, USA, the primary process controlling water movement is evapotranspiration (Nestler 1977, Hemond & Fifield 1982, Hemond et al 1984, Morris & Whiting 1985, Howes et al 1986, Morris 1988, Nuttle 1988, Nuttle & Hemond 1988, Nuttle et al 1989.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical characteristics of salt marsh sediments: ecological implications

Bradley¹,

Morris²

1990

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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We measured the physical charactenstics of 4 sedlment types commonly found in southeastern (USA) salt marshes and their relationship to sediment drainage and compressibility. Compressibility was found to be positively correlated with total silt-clay content (r2 = 0.953) and negatively correlated with total sand content (r2 = 0.942). A linear relationship (r2 = 0.832) was found between the square root of sediment percolation velocity and bulk density. Calculations of the rate of air entry and porewater turnover based on our measurements of drainage and compressibility are consistent with the supply of SO,' ' necessary to support the rates of SO,'-reduction found at North Inlet, South Carolina, USA, by previous researchers and indicate that compressibility may regulate the turnover of reduced end products such as pyrite. For incompressible sediments, it was demonstrated that the entry of air into sediments following water loss by evapotranspiration is quantitatively important in oxidizing reduced sulfur compounds, while drainage of compressible creek bank sediments is apparently sufficient to replace SO4'-utilized by dissimilatory Sod2-reducers.

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“…Jeng et al [2005] develop an analytical solution to the Boussinesq equation to address spring-neap tide induced fluctuations in a sloping coastal aquifer. More detailed hydrologic models have been derived to describe various individual components of tidal marsh hydrology, such as the vertical flow of groundwater in response to evapotranspiration demand and the piezometric pressure of an underlying aquifer [Hemond and Fifield, 1982], surface infiltration [Hemond et al, 1984], horizontal fluxes [Nuttle and Hemond, 1988], and the stress and pressure changes due to tidal loading of the marsh surface [Reeves et al, 2000]. Attempts to link together different hydrologic processes in wetland environments have been undertaken using numerical models [Ursino et al, 2004;Wilson and Gardner, 2005;Li et al, 2005;Skags et al, 2005;Thompson et al, 2004;Twilley and Chen, 1998].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[3] In tidal areas, hydrology at least partially controls the exchange of nutrients, organic matter, and pollutants between upland watersheds, tidal wetlands and surface waters [Gardner, 1975;Heinle and Flemer, 1976;Valiela et al, 1978;Luther et al, 1982;Hemond et al, 1984;Jordan and Correll, 1985;Yelverton and Hackney, 1986].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A simple model for predicting water table fluctuations in a tidal marsh

Montalto

Parlange

Steenhuis

2007

Water Resources Research

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[1] Wetland restoration efforts are ongoing in many urban estuaries. In this context the hydrologic characteristics of restored wetlands are of paramount importance since the spatially and temporally variable position of the water table and of soil saturation establishes the oxidation state of the substrate, which, in turn, affects the wetland's biogeochemical composition and the biological communities it is capable of supporting. A relatively simple analytical model developed here describes tidal marsh hydrology from creek bank to interior, considering transient drainage, net meteorological inputs, and tidal effects. Given a series of physical and time-dependent inputs, the analytical solution derived predicts the position of the water table at points along a transect perpendicular to a tidal creek. Validation of the model using water table time series data collected along three transects at Piermont Marsh, a tidal wetland on the Hudson River in the New York/ New Jersey Estuary, indicates good general agreement between observations and predictions, although it may not be precise enough for some kinds of ecological applications. A sensitivity analysis on the model indicates that a range of pairs of transmissivity and specific yield values that increase with distance from the creek results in the same spatial and temporal fluctuations in the water table. This equifinality result is discussed as it relates to the predictive capacity of the model presented.

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Surface Infiltration in Salt Marshes: Theory, Measurement, and Biogeochemical Implications

Cited by 70 publications

References 16 publications

Porewater drainage and dissolved organic carbon and nutrient losses through the intertidal creek-banks of a New England salt marsh

Porewater drainage and dissolved organic carbon and nutrient losses through the intertidal creek-banks of a New England salt marsh

Physical characteristics of salt marsh sediments: ecological implications

A simple model for predicting water table fluctuations in a tidal marsh

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