Are Elevation and Open‐Water Conversion of Salt Marshes Connected?
Abstract Salt marsh assessments focus on vertical metrics such as accretion or lateral metrics such as open‐water conversion, without exploration of how the dimensions are related. We exploited a novel geospatial data set to explore how elevation is related to the unvegetated‐vegetated marsh ratio (...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2020-02-01
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| Series: | Geophysical Research Letters |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086703 |
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| author | Neil K. Ganju Zafer Defne Sergio Fagherazzi |
| author_facet | Neil K. Ganju Zafer Defne Sergio Fagherazzi |
| author_sort | Neil K. Ganju |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Salt marsh assessments focus on vertical metrics such as accretion or lateral metrics such as open‐water conversion, without exploration of how the dimensions are related. We exploited a novel geospatial data set to explore how elevation is related to the unvegetated‐vegetated marsh ratio (UVVR), a lateral metric, across individual marsh “units” within four estuarine‐marsh systems. We find that elevation scales consistently with the UVVR across systems, with lower elevation units demonstrating more open‐water conversion and higher UVVRs. A normalized elevation‐UVVR relationship converges across systems near the system‐mean elevation and a UVVR of 0.1, a critical threshold identified by prior studies. This indicates that open‐water conversion becomes a dominant lateral instability process at a relatively conservative elevation threshold. We then integrate the UVVR and elevation to yield lifespan estimates, which demonstrate that higher elevation marshes are more resilient to internal deterioration, with an order‐of‐magnitude longer lifespan than predicted for lower elevation marshes. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-068c21f143d9426ab64faba55e17a79b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0094-8276 1944-8007 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-02-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geophysical Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-068c21f143d9426ab64faba55e17a79b2025-08-20T03:49:32ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072020-02-01473n/an/a10.1029/2019GL086703Are Elevation and Open‐Water Conversion of Salt Marshes Connected?Neil K. Ganju0Zafer Defne1Sergio Fagherazzi2U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Woods Hole MA USAU.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Woods Hole MA USADepartment of Earth Sciences Boston University Boston MA USAAbstract Salt marsh assessments focus on vertical metrics such as accretion or lateral metrics such as open‐water conversion, without exploration of how the dimensions are related. We exploited a novel geospatial data set to explore how elevation is related to the unvegetated‐vegetated marsh ratio (UVVR), a lateral metric, across individual marsh “units” within four estuarine‐marsh systems. We find that elevation scales consistently with the UVVR across systems, with lower elevation units demonstrating more open‐water conversion and higher UVVRs. A normalized elevation‐UVVR relationship converges across systems near the system‐mean elevation and a UVVR of 0.1, a critical threshold identified by prior studies. This indicates that open‐water conversion becomes a dominant lateral instability process at a relatively conservative elevation threshold. We then integrate the UVVR and elevation to yield lifespan estimates, which demonstrate that higher elevation marshes are more resilient to internal deterioration, with an order‐of‐magnitude longer lifespan than predicted for lower elevation marshes.https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086703 |
| spellingShingle | Neil K. Ganju Zafer Defne Sergio Fagherazzi Are Elevation and Open‐Water Conversion of Salt Marshes Connected? Geophysical Research Letters |
| title | Are Elevation and Open‐Water Conversion of Salt Marshes Connected? |
| title_full | Are Elevation and Open‐Water Conversion of Salt Marshes Connected? |
| title_fullStr | Are Elevation and Open‐Water Conversion of Salt Marshes Connected? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Are Elevation and Open‐Water Conversion of Salt Marshes Connected? |
| title_short | Are Elevation and Open‐Water Conversion of Salt Marshes Connected? |
| title_sort | are elevation and open water conversion of salt marshes connected |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086703 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT neilkganju areelevationandopenwaterconversionofsaltmarshesconnected AT zaferdefne areelevationandopenwaterconversionofsaltmarshesconnected AT sergiofagherazzi areelevationandopenwaterconversionofsaltmarshesconnected |