Marsh Creeks Research Articles

Conditional Effects of Tides and Waves on Sediment Supply to Salt Marshes

AbstractThe survival of salt marshes, especially facing future sea‐level rise, requires sediment supply. Sediment can be supplied to salt marshes via two routes: through marsh creeks and over marsh edges. However, the conditions of tides and waves that facilitate sediment import through these two routes remain unclear. To understand when and how sediment is imported into salt marshes, 2‐month measurements were conducted to monitor tides, waves, and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in Paulina Saltmarsh, a meso‐macrotidal system. The results show that the marsh creek tends to import sediment during neap tides with waves. A tidal cycle with a small tidal range result in weaker flow in the marsh creek during ebb tides, reducing the export of sediment. Waves enhance sediment supply to the marsh creek by eroding mudflats. However, strong waves can directly resuspend sediment in marsh creeks during spring tides when the water level is above the marsh canopy, enhancing sediment export through creeks. Net sediment import over marsh edges requires the opposite tidal and wave conditions: spring tides with weak waves. Spring tides provide stronger hydrodynamics, facilitating sediment import over the marsh edge. Increased SSC during the ebb phase can occur with strong waves over the marsh edge, resulting in net sediment export. Therefore, the net import or export of sediment, through the creek and over the marsh edge, depends on the combination of tidal and wave conditions. These conditions can vary between estuaries and even individual marshes. Understanding these conditions is crucial for better management of salt marshes.

Cable bacteria colonise new sediment environments through water column dispersal.

Cable bacteria exhibit a unique metabolism involving long-distance electron transport, significantly impacting elemental cycling in various sediments. These long filamentous bacteria are distributed circumglobally, suggesting an effective mode of dispersal. However, oxygen strongly inhibits their activity, posing a challenge to their dispersal through the water column. We investigated the effective dispersal of marine cable bacteria in a compartmentalised microcosm experiment. Cable bacteria were grown in natural 'source' sediment, and their metabolic activity was recorded in autoclaved 'destination' cores, which were only accessible through oxygenated seawater. Colonisation occurred over weeks, and destination cores contained only one cable bacterium strain. Filament 'snippets' (fragments with a median size of ~15 cells) accumulated in the microcosm water, with about 30% of snippets attached to sediment particles. Snippet release was also observed in situ in a salt marsh creek. This provides a model for the dispersal of cable bacteria through oxygenated water: snippets are formed by filament breakage in the sediment, released into the overlying water and transported with sediment particles that likely offer protection. These insights are informative for broader theories on microbial community assembly and prokaryotic biogeography in marine sediments.

Sources of suspended sediments in salt marsh creeks: Field measurements in China and the Netherlands

Marsh creeks are perceived as important conduits for transporting water and sediment between mudflats and marshes. In order to advance the understanding of the transport mechanisms in creeks, the source and ultimate sink of sediment which moves between mudflats and marshes through creek channels need further investigation. Therefore, two field campaigns were conducted in two intertidal systems with varying sediment availability. The water depth, flow velocity, suspended sediment concentration, and bed level change were measured simultaneously in a marsh creek and on the adjacent mudflat in Chongming Island (China) and in Paulina Saltmarsh (the Netherlands). Paulina Saltmarsh is much smaller, more frequently flooded, and has lower sediment concentration than Chongming. These contrasting conditions allow for a comparison of transport mechanisms and functioning of the creek. Both systems first show that the high suspended sediment concentration (SSC) measured in marsh creeks is mainly the consequence of sediment advection rather than local erosion. In addition, erosion in marsh creeks is usually limited during ebb tides, reducing the export of sediment through these creeks. However, differences have been observed between two systems. The measured SSC was highly asymmetric between flood and ebb tides in Chongming. Large peaks in SSC during the flood period can be observed for most tidal cycles. The marsh creeks in Chongming therefore function as conduits for sediment import. Additionally, there are distinct overbank and underbank tides in Chongming. Sediment was trapped and retained in creeks during underbank tides, which can then be eroded and transported to the marsh during subsequent overbank tides. We also observed that mudflats in Chongming quickly recovered after erosion. These mechanisms have not been observed in Paulina Saltmarsh, where net sediment export via the marsh creek was observed due to a lack of abundant sediment in suspension during flood tides. Furthermore, the remaining bed surface of mudflats after an erosion event was stronger than before, limiting further erosion in Paulina Saltmarsh. These findings from the two systems indicate that the role of creeks in sediment import/export depends on the availability of sediment from mudflats, shedding light on nourishment strategies for salt marshes.

Simple bulk pigment analysis suggests microphytobenthos contributions to food webs may be underestimated due to isotopic contamination by remineralized wetland carbon

Stable isotope studies have revealed the importance of microphytobenthos (MPB) in coastal food webs. Microalgae typically have δ13C values between depleted C3 wetland/terrestrial macrophytes, and enriched C4 macrophytes and seagrasses. However, the challenges of obtaining clean samples of microalgae from sediments means they are often represented by limited sampling in many food web studies; consequently, we have a limited understanding of spatial and temporal variation in their δ13C values. We tested a simple technique to measure the δ13C of bulk pigments extracted from surficial sediments to represent MPB and applied it to quantify fine scale spatial variation in MPB δ13C around salt marshes. The bulk extraction method is logistically simple, and drives substantial but relatively consistent fractionation in δ13C of −3.5 ± 0.13 ‰ (mean ± 1 S.E., range = 2.3–4.4 ‰, n = 18 paired comparisons) compared to whole cell values. The consistency in fractionation suggests that spatial and temporal δ13C patterns measured in field samples should reflect real variation in source values, and that measured values could be corrected and incorporated into isotope mixing models. In 88 MPB samples among four marsh sites over two summers, MPB δ13C in marsh creeks was lower by an average of 4.4 ± 0.72 ‰ and up to 8.4 ‰ compared to sites along the outer marsh-open water fringe 10's of m away. Few food web studies incorporate this magnitude of variation in their MPB source estimates into mixing models. Over three weekly samplings at one marsh creek site, low tide dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) δ13C was similarly lower by 4.8 ± 0.36 ‰ and up to 6.2 ‰ compared to high tide and adjacent open water DIC values. The significant small-scale variability in MPB δ13C appears to be driven by remineralized marsh carbon which depletes the DIC δ13C in the marsh creeks, a phenomenon that has long been recognized but is rarely considered in food web studies. Mixing models that assume a narrower range in MPB source values will erroneously attribute isotopically variable MPB contributions to end-member production sources thereby clouding our understanding of energy flows through coastal seascapes.

Top-predator recovery abates geomorphic decline of a coastal ecosystem.

The recovery of top predators is thought to have cascading effects on vegetated ecosystems and their geomorphology1,2, but the evidence for this remains correlational and intensely debated3,4. Here we combine observational and experimental data to reveal that recolonization of sea otters in a US estuary generates a trophic cascade that facilitates coastal wetland plant biomass and suppresses the erosion of marsh edges-a process that otherwise leads to the severe loss of habitats and ecosystem services5,6. Monitoring of the Elkhorn Slough estuary over several decades suggested top-down control in the system, because the erosion of saltmarsh edges has generally slowed with increasing seaotter abundance, despite the consistently increasing physical stress in the system (that is, nutrient loading, sea-level rise and tidal scour7-9). Predator-exclusion experiments in five marsh creeks revealed that sea otters suppress the abundance of burrowing crabs, a top-down effect that cascades to both increase marsh edge strength and reduce marsh erosion. Multi-creek surveys comparing marsh creeks pre- and post-sea otter colonization confirmed the presence of an interaction between the keystone sea otter, burrowing crabsand marsh creeks, demonstrating the spatial generality of predator control of ecosystem edge processes: densities of burrowing crabs and edge erosion have declined markedly in creeks that have high levels of seaotter recolonization. These results show that trophic downgrading could be a strong but underappreciated contributor to the loss of coastal wetlands, and suggest that restoring top predators can help to re-establish geomorphic stability.

Sediment fluxes within salt marsh tidal creek systems in the Yangtze Estuary

Creeks are essential for salt marshes by conveying water and sediment through this geomorphic system. In this paper, we investigate the mechanisms that determine the residual sediment flux using measurements conducted in tidal creeks in salt marshes of the Yangtze Estuary. A main creek and a secondary creek were studied to explore whether the mechanisms determining residual sediment fluxes through the main creek differ from those in the secondary creek. Measurements in creeks were carried out over 5 years, spanning different months. Sediment import was found during most tides, both in the main creek and the secondary creek, implying that creeks in Chongming generally function as a conveyor belt of sediment into the marsh. However, sediment export can occur during certain overbank tides. When comparing the role of creeks in drainage and sediment delivery, the main creek functions more in delivering sediment while the secondary creek primarily serves as a drainage conduit. To better understand the mechanisms behind sediment fluxes, the residual sediment flux was compared with the residual discharge and the sediment differential (differences in sediment concentration between flood and ebb). Overbank tides generally lead to a net outward discharge as more water from saltmarshes can be concentrated into the marsh creek during ebb tides. This net outward discharge tends to export more sediment during ebb tides. However, due to the sediment abundance during the flood phase in the turbid environment, sediment import can be expected even with the residual export of water. Export of sediment was only found for the few tides with a net outward discharge and a small positive sediment concentration differential. Large negative sediment differentials (larger averaged suspended sediment concentration during ebb tides) have not been observed because the sediment supply during ebb is limited. This paper unravels how the sediment differential and residual discharge contribute to the residual sediment flux, providing a better understanding of sediment dynamics in marsh creek systems.

Seasonal drivers of dissolved oxygen across a tidal creek–marsh interface revealed by machine learning

AbstractDissolved oxygen (DO) is a key biogeochemical control in coastal systems, and its concentration and drivers vary markedly through time and space. This makes it difficult to accurately represent coastal DO and associated biogeochemical processes in models, limiting our ability to predict how these systems will respond to global change. We obtained high‐frequency (5‐min) in situ measurements of DO collected at three locations across the interface of a tidal creek and coastal marsh in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Random Forest machine learning models quantified the importance of three categories of environmental drivers (Aquatic, Climatic, and Terrestrial) of DO variability across the creek–marsh interface. We selected two 4‐month datasets representing Summer and Winter seasonal periods to test two hypotheses on the dominant drivers of DO at the coastal interface. We found that the Terrestrial driver—characterized by long periods of anaerobic conditions and episodic pulses in DO after floods—was most important during the Winter, whereas the Aquatic driver—characterized by variability over tidal, diel, and lunar cycles—was most important during the Summer. We explored how future climate change scenarios could alter the drivers of DO variability using a cumulative sums driver–response framework. Our results suggest that under climate change, Aquatic and Climatic drivers may increase in importance during the Summer, potentially linked to changing metabolic regimes and sea level, with Terrestrial driver importance potentially increasing during the Winter. Our approach highlights useful methods for understanding the spatiotemporal complexity of oxygen across coastal interfaces and quantifying the relative importance of distinct environmental drivers.

Suitability of saltmarsh creeks as release locations for stocked Mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus)

Enhancing local marine fish population through stocking programs is widely undertaken around the world. The family Sciaenidae is particularly well represented in marine stocking programs where they are released to enhance both commercial and recreational fisheries. In Australia, a stocking program of the sciaenid Mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus) is currently underway with fingerlings being released into deep water habitat within estuaries. However, many estuaries also contain fringing saltmarsh and mangrove creeks which may provide resource-rich release habitat locations. To examine the suitability of marsh creeks as stocking sites, we used acoustic telemetry and monitored the habitat use and movement of 30 hatchery reared fish, released into wetlands of the Hunter River estuary. After initially rapidly dispersing the region covered by the array due to high salinities, some fish returned when physicochemical conditions improved. Despite being detected within the array almost daily for four months, none of the returned fish ever re-entered the marsh creeks. This study confirms releases of juvenile Mulloway should continue to focus on deeper waters which appears to be provide nursery habitat for this species. More broadly, this shows stocked fish will seek out better resourced habitats, and an understanding of these requirements which informs release strategies that place fish as close to these habitats as logistically possible would optimise stocking outcomes.

Non-conservative behavior of dissolved organic carbon in a Georgia salt marsh creek indicates summer outwelling

Salt marshes are highly productive ecosystems that efficiently accumulate carbon. However, it remains unclear how much carbon is exported from salt marshes (i.e., outwelled) through creeks as dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Addressing this uncertainty is critical for quantifying net carbon accumulation and determining the role marshes play in broader coastal carbon cycles. Consequently, this study sought to quantify net DOC fluxes through Groves Creek, the tidally-driven main creek channel of Groves Creek salt marsh on the Georgia coast (USA). To do this, near-continuous records of water flux, salt flux, and DOC flux were determined in Groves Creek's primary creek channel at 10-min resolution over 16 months. At our study site, we found that generally more water flowed onto the marsh through Groves Creek's primary creek channel during flood tide than left this route during ebb tide. The remaining unsampled water balance was assumed to leave the marsh via secondary marsh channels and over the marsh edge. Due to this limitation, the conservative nature of salt was utilized alongside flow and DOC to determine net DOC trends in Grove Creek's primary creek channel. Cumulative net DOC-salt relationships are linear for most of the study, indicating DOC largely behaved conservatively in the creek channel and wider marsh system. However, a period of non-conservative behavior in which the cumulative net DOC:salt ratio decreased indicated net DOC outwelling (4.1–30.1 g DOC m−2 y−1) during summer 2014. Results indicate DOC outwelling events, as observed here, may occur in pulses during highly productive summer months. Resolving these “hot” moments of DOC export at high-temporal resolution across larger salt marsh ecosystems is required to assess the true extent and quantitative significance of DOC outwelling to coastal carbon cycles and ecology.

Exchange Flows in Tributary Creeks Enhance Dispersion by Tidal Trapping

The North River estuary (Massachusetts, USA) is a tidal marsh creek network where tidal dispersion processes dominate the salt balance. A field study using moorings, shipboard measurements, and drone surveys was conducted to characterize and quantify tidal trapping due to tributary creeks. During flood tide, saltwater propagates up the main channel and gets “trapped” in the creeks. The creeks inherit an axial salinity gradient from the time-varying salinity at their boundary with the main channel, but it is stronger than the salinity gradient of the main channel because of relatively weaker currents. The stronger salinity gradient drives a baroclinic circulation that stratifies the creeks, while the main channel remains well-mixed. Because of the creeks’ shorter geometries, tidal currents in the creeks lead those in the main channel; therefore, the creeks never fill with the saltiest water which passes the main channel junction. This velocity phase difference is enhanced by the exchange flow in the creeks, which fast-tracks the fresher surface layer in the creeks back to the main channel. Through ebb tide, the relatively fresh creek outflows introduce a negative salinity anomaly into the main channel, where it is advected downstream by the tide. Using high-resolution measurements, we empirically determine the salinity anomaly in the main channel resulting from its exchange with the creeks to calculate a dispersion rate due to trapping. Our dispersion rate is larger than theoretical estimates that neglect the exchange flow in the creeks. Trapping contributes more than half the landward salt flux in this region.

Another piece of the puzzle: Abiotic habitat properties of salt-marsh creeks benefit small fishes and crustaceans

Inundated salt marshes are valued as nekton habitat due to their low predator and high prey abundance. But habitat quality depends also on abiotic properties. We measured hydrological (temperature, oxygen concentration) and hydrodynamic (flow velocity, turbidity, sediment grain size) parameters in four German salt-marsh creeks and compared these with the adjacent tidal flat and subtidal area. Water temperatures in the salt-marsh creeks varied with season, daytime and over the tides. In contrast to deeper subtidal areas, the small water body in the marsh creeks adapted rapidly to air temperatures, resulting in relatively cool water temperatures in winter and relatively warm temperatures in summer. Despite high summer temperatures, the oxygen concentration in the creeks remained year round within the tolerance range of most fishes and crustaceans (above 5 mg/L), probably due to tidal mixing and primary production. Furthermore, the water body in the salt-marsh creeks was sheltered by the vegetated marsh surface from wind and waves and thus characterized by low flow velocities (0.15 ms−1), as well as lower turbidity and finer sediments than in the subtidal. As the specific set of habitat characteristics in the marsh creeks could explain utilization of this habitat by nekton, we performed a constrained redundancy analysis including temperature and turbidity as explanatory variables. Turbidity explained almost 21% of the variation in nekton species occurrence, while temperature accounted for only 2% of the variation. Compared to larger animals, small-sized nekton, which dominated the salt-marsh nekton community, is more capable to deal with extreme temperatures and will profit more from reduced currents than larger animals. Despite the limited accessibility for aquatic organism, intertidal salt-marsh creeks appear to provide favourable habitat for small nekton due to increased growth potential during seasonally higher temperatures, reduced swimming effort, and increased prey visibility and availability in the muddy sediments.

Lateral shoreline erosion and shore-proximal sediment deposition on a coastal marsh from seasonal, storm and decadal measurements

The persistence of coastal marsh is dependent on its ability to maintain elevation relative to sea level, particularly for marshes experiencing high rates of shoreline erosion due to wave-attack, storms, and sea level rise. Sediments eroded at the marsh edge are either delivered onto the marsh platform or into the estuary, the latter resulting in a net loss of marsh sediments and soil carbon. Knowledge on the timing, pattern, and quantity of sediment deposition versus shoreline erosion along the marsh-estuary interface is critical for evaluating the overall health and vulnerability of coastal marshes to future scenarios of sea level rise and for estimating sediment budgets. Here we examined marsh shoreline erosion and sediment deposition for marsh sites experiencing a range of shoreline erosion rates and different levels of wind-wave exposure within the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and Wildlife Refuge in Mississippi. We developed a method for calculating an erosion-deposition sediment budget using marsh elevation profiles, shoreline erosion rate, and sediment deposition measurements. Sediment budgets were calculated at four sites with varying shoreline erosion rates. Much of the sediment eroded at the marsh edge can be accounted for as marsh platform deposition, except at the most erosive site, suggesting a possible erosion threshold where eroded sediment mass is greater than platform deposition. Consistent with other studies of marsh creeks, sediment delivery to the marsh platform appears to be largely driven by wave climate. These data suggest that for erosive bay-estuarine shorelines, sediment delivered into the marsh is largely concentrated near the marsh shoreline, although shoreline erosion does not always result in a net loss of sediments from the marsh system in either decadal or annual assessments.

Preference, avoidance or coincidence? How fish and crustaceans use intertidal salt-marsh creeks in the German Wadden Sea

Worldwide, salt marshes have proven important or even essential for a wide variety of marine nekton. But in the world's largest intertidal wetland, the Wadden Sea, their role for nekton is surprisingly unexplored. Building on extensive field sampling, this study presents an inventory of fish and crustacean species using German Wadden Sea salt marshes and investigates their habitat use and affinity. Ten species dominated the nekton assemblage of the salt-marsh creeks both in frequency of occurrence and in relative abundance. Repetitive samplings resulted in highly variable catches, probably caused by the abundance in the subtidal. However, common goby (Pomatoschistus microps) and brown shrimp (Crangon crangon) were depleted with the 9 consecutive hauls when occurring in high numbers, indicating a high habitat affinity. Seasonal and diurnal quantitative sampling revealed seasonal shifts within the nekton community and significant higher densities during night than day for seven out of the nine dominant salt-marsh nekton species. Nekton densities tended to be lower than elsewhere in the Wadden Sea and thus animals using the salt-marsh creeks may benefit from lower resource competition. Compared to the subtidal not only the species composition differed significantly but also the size composition. The majority of fish in the marsh creeks were small (97% < 4.5 cm), consisting of larvae, juveniles and adults of small species. Thus, the use of salt-marsh creeks seems predominantly be triggered by size than by life stage. The absence of aquatic and avian piscivores indicates that salt-marsh creeks function for small nekton as refuge from predators. However, the habitat value depends also on the connected low tide refuges and the access pathways in between. The difference of the nekton community of the marsh creeks from the subtidal raises the demand for habitat-specific monitoring programmes and further research on the connectivity and interactions between different habitat types, both considering seasonal and diurnal abundance variabilities.

Resolving Estuarine Nitrogen Use by Phytoplankton Communities Using a Whole Ecosystem Tracer Approach

The use of nutrients by diverse phytoplankton communities in estuarine systems, and their response to changes in physical and biogeochemical processes in these natural systems, is a significant ongoing area of research. We used a whole ecosystem 15NO3− tracer experiment to determine the uptake of different nitrogen (N) forms in phytoplankton functional groups over a mid- to neap tidal cycle in a salt marsh creek in Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts, USA. We quantified the biomass and δ15N for three groups corresponding to micro- (20–200 μm; microP), nano- (3–20 μm; nanoP), and picophytoplankton (< 3 μm; picoP). All three size classes showed distinct use of recycled N sources throughout the 11-day sampling period and minimal direct assimilation of the 15NO3− tracer. MicroP consistently used high amounts of creek-derived 15NH4+, even with a shift at neap tide from diatom- to dinoflagellate-dominated communities (including members of the harmful genus Alexandrium). NanoP use of recycled 15NH4+ increased over the mid-neap tidal cycle, while picoP use decreased. Both biomass and NH4+ use (as highest δ15N values) of all size groups were maximized during neap tide. This study demonstrates partitioning of recycled N use among size-based phytoplankton groups in the estuary, with distinct effects of tidal cycle on the nutrient uptake of each group, and with important implications for the roles of diverse phytoplankton communities in estuarine nutrient cycling.

Carbon Pools Differ in Source and Temporal Patterns in a Tidal Marsh Creek System of the York River, VA Estuary

Estuarine ecosystems, including tidal marsh creek systems, are hotspots of carbon cycling. Despite their biogeochemical importance, the magnitude and timescales at which carbon concentrations vary in these environments remain poorly characterized. To address this, our study identified temporal patterns in carbon pools in a tidal marsh creek with the goal of identifying their primary drivers. Specifically, we measured concentrations of particulate and dissolved organic carbon (POC, DOC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), water quality parameters, and organic matter source proxies (δ13C, δ15N, and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM)). We collected samples every 2.5 h over a tidal cycle monthly (October 2013–January 2015, intermittently thereafter). We characterized organic matter composition from marsh and estuarine endmembers using samples collected at low and high tides respectively. POC concentrations were highest at high tide (4.21 ± 0.40 mg/L), whereas DIC concentrations were highest at low tide (24.82 ± 0.74 mg/L), suggesting that the marsh was a sink for POC and source of DIC. Temporally, DIC concentrations were highest in fall (23.19 ± 1.30 mg/L); DOC and POC varied little across seasons. We used linear mixed effect models to identify potential processes that explained these temporal patterns. Suspended solids and chlorophyll-a were the best predictors of POC concentrations, while CDOM was the best predictor of DOC, and percent freshwater was the best predictor of DIC (p < 0.001). Results from this study highlight the importance of measuring multiple carbon pools simultaneously, as each pool is influenced by different sources and processes and responds differently to drivers that change at tidal and seasonal timescales.

Reclamation-induced tidal restriction increases dissolved carbon and greenhouse gases diffusive fluxes in salt marsh creeks

Intertidal creeks play an important role in transporting nutrients between coastal ecosystems and ocean. Reclamation is a predominant anthropogenic disturbance in coastal regions; however, the influence of reclamation on carbon and nitrogen species and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in creek remains unclear. In a subtropical salt marsh of eastern China, the seasonal patterns of dissolved carbon (DOC, DIC, CO2, and CH4) and inorganic nitrogen (NH4+-N, NO2−-N, and NO3−-N and N2O) species, and the diffusive fluxes of CO2, CH4, and N2O, were compared between the natural tidal creeks and the reclaimed creeks. Due to notably changed hydrological and biological conditions in the reclaimed creeks, concentrations of all dissolved carbon species, NH4+-N and NO2−-N increased significantly by 60.2–288.2%, while NO3−-N and N2O decreased slightly, compared to the natural tidal creeks. DIC and NO3−-N were the primary components of the total dissolved carbon and inorganic nitrogen in both creek types; however, their proportions decreased as a result of elevated DOC, CO2, CH4, NH4+-N, and NO2−-N following reclamation. Significantly higher global warming potential (0.58 ± 0.15 g CO2-eq m−2 d−1) was found in the reclaimed creeks, making them hotspot of greenhouse effects, compared to the natural tidal creeks. Our results indicated that changes in flow velocity, salinity, Chlorophyll a, and pH were the main factors controlling the dissolved carbon and nitrogen and consequent GHG emissions, due to reclamation. This study is helpful in understanding of carbon and nitrogen sink-source shifts resulting from land use changes in coastal wetlands.

Assessing the Resiliency of Salt Marshes Under Increasing Nitrogen Loading

Understanding the threat to ecosystems from excess nitrogen in coastal waters is a priority issue in scientific research and natural resource management. Previous field studies have demonstrated that high nitrogen loading can decrease the health and resiliency of salt marshes through shifting biomass allocation, increasing decomposition, and causing creek bank instability, all of which can lead to increased marsh loss with sea-level rise. However, other studies have shown relatively little impact of increasing nitrogen on the structure and function of these systems. Due to the long history of eutrophication in Long Island Sound, aggressive nitrogen reduction strategies have been enacted in this region, but detrimental nutrient inputs persist at variable levels throughout the watershed. Here, the extent of nitrogen-linked salt marsh change under varying levels of nutrient stress was measured, testing the hypothesis that salt marsh resilience (as measured by Spartina alterniflora belowground biomass and marsh edge stability) decreases with increasing nitrogen loading. S. alterniflora growth (stem height, stem density, and biomass) and within-marsh creek area were quantified in 10 salt marshes along a nitrogen-loading gradient. Increasing nitrogen loading showed a significant negative relationship with dead belowground biomass in S. alterniflora; the loss of this belowground biomass in higher nitrogen systems may decrease salt marshes’ ability to keep pace with sea-level rise. Neither shifts in live biomass allocation nor a positive relationship between aboveground biomass or stem height and increasing nitrogen was observed that might promote additional sediment capture, but higher stem density could play a role in promoting sedimentation on the marsh surface in more sediment-rich systems. Aerial photography analysis revealed marsh creek expansion since 1934 at 90% of the marshes studied, but unlike findings from prior experimental enrichment studies, the rate of marsh loss did not increase with increasing nitrogen loading. Given the importance of these ecosystems and the potential of nitrogen to decrease their resiliency, understanding the impacts of eutrophication on salt marshes is critical. However, these results show that the relative importance of nitrogen in driving salt marsh loss in Long Island Sound may be less than studies from other regions have suggested.

Predicting dissolved organic carbon concentration in a dynamic salt marsh creek via machine learning

AbstractDissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a master variable in aquatic systems. Resolving DOC dynamics requires high‐temporal resolution data. However, DOC concentration cannot be directly measured in situ, and discrete sample collection and analysis becomes expensive as temporal resolution increases. To surmount this problem, an option is to predict site‐specific DOC concentration with linear modeling and optical data predictors collected from high‐cost, high‐maintenance in situ spectrophotometers. This study sought to improve upon the accuracy and field costs of linear predictive DOC methods by using machine learning modeling coupled to low‐to‐zero cost predictors. To do this, we collected 16 months of in situ data (e.g., spectrophotometer attenuation, salinity, temperature), assembled freely available predictors (e.g., point in year, rainfall), and collected samples for DOC analysis, all in a salt marsh creek. At seasonal timescales, machine learning (coefficient of determination [R2] = 0.90) modestly improved upon the accuracy of linear methods (R2 = 0.80) but offered substantial instrumentation cost reductions (~ 90%) by requiring only cost‐free predictors (online data) or cost‐free predictors paired with low‐cost in situ predictors (temperature, salinity, depth). At intertidal timescales, linear methods proved ill‐equipped to predict DOC concentration compared to machine learning, and again, machine learning offered a substantial instrumentation cost reduction (~ 90%). Although our models were developed for and applicable to a single site, the use of machine learning with low‐to‐zero cost predictors provides a blueprint for others trying to model DOC dynamics and other analytes in any complex aquatic system.

Identification of tidal trapping of microplastics in a temperate salt marsh system using sea surface microlayer sampling

Microplastics are contaminants of increasing global environmental concern. Estuaries are a major transport pathway for land-derived plastics to the open ocean but are relatively understudied compared to coastal and open marine environments. The role of the “estuarine filter”, by which the supply of sediments and contaminants to the sea is moderated by processes including vegetative trapping and particle flocculation, remains poorly defined for microplastics land to sea transfer. Here, we focus on the sea surface microlayer (SML) as a vector for microplastics, and use SML sampling to assess microplastic trapping in a temperate marsh system in Southampton Water, UK. The SML is known to concentrate microplastics relative to the underlying water and is the first part of rising tidal waters to traverse intertidal and upper tidal surfaces. Sampling a salt marsh creek at high temporal resolution allowed assessment of microplastics in-wash and outflow from the salt marsh, and its relationship with tidal state and bulk suspended sediment concentrations (SSC), over spring and neap tides. A statistically significant decrease in microplastics abundance from the flood tide to the ebb tide was found, and a weak positive relationship with SSC observed.

Coexistence of plant species under harsh environmental conditions: an evaluation of niche differentiation and stochasticity along salt marsh creeks

BackgroundEcologists have achieved much progress in the study of mechanisms that maintain species coexistence and diversity. In this paper, we reviewed a wide range of past research related to these topics, focusing on five theoretical bodies: (1) coexistence by niche differentiation, (2) coexistence without niche differentiation, (3) coexistence along environmental stress gradients, (4) coexistence under non-equilibrium versus equilibrium conditions, and (5) modern perspectives.ResultsFrom the review, we identified that there are few models that can be generally and confidently applicable to different ecological systems. This problem arises mainly because most theories have not been substantiated by enough empirical research based on field data to test various coexistence hypotheses at different spatial scales. We also found that little is still known about the mechanisms of species coexistence under harsh environmental conditions. This is because most previous models treat disturbance as a key factor shaping community structure, but they do not explicitly deal with stressful systems with non-lethal conditions. We evaluated the mainstream ideas of niche differentiation and stochasticity for the coexistence of plant species across salt marsh creeks in southwestern Denmark. The results showed that diversity indices, such as Shannon–Wiener diversity, richness, and evenness, decreased with increasing surface elevation and increased with increasing niche overlap and niche breadth. The two niche parameters linearly decreased with increasing elevation. These findings imply a substantial influence of an equalizing mechanism that reduces differences in relative fitness among species in the highly stressful environments of the marsh. We propose that species evenness increases under very harsh conditions if the associated stress is not lethal. Finally, we present a conceptual model of patterns related to the level of environmental stress and niche characteristics along a microhabitat gradient (i.e., surface elevation).ConclusionsThe ecology of stressful systems with non-lethal conditions will be increasingly important as ongoing global-scale climate change extends the period of chronic stresses that are not necessarily fatal to inhabiting plants. We recommend that more ecologists continue this line of research.