Evaluating the Impact of Hydrologic Alterations on Salt Marsh Sustainabilityin a Changing Climate - NERRS/NSC(NERRS Science Collaborative)

This project is a collaboration between scientists and end users to develop decision-support tools for marsh hydrological management strategies that promote sustainability and delivery of valuable ecosystem services under future sea level scenarios.

Coastal managers are faced with the challenge of managing marsh hydrology in a way that meets human health needs, optimizes ecosystem services, and supports sustainability. In New England, this includes accounting for the effects of ditches that were dug decades ago in 90% of the region's salt marshes.

Ditches increase marsh drainage and reduce the spatial extent of shallow pools that may represent physical loss of buried soil carbon. However, efficient drainage may reduce the long-term sustainability of marshes by altering below ground biogeochemical and physical processes in a way that results in subsidence and lowered marsh elevation. Managers, restoration practitioners, and scientists at the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and the Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project have expressed a need to understand the tradeoffs of hydologic management strategies (i.e. ditch remediation, density, maintenance) and identify actions that will achieve user-specified outcomes, such as drainage, maintaining elevation, and carbon burial.

Project Lead

Amanda Spivak

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

(508) 289-4847

aspivak@whoi.edu

Project Type

Collaborative Research – generating

science that informs decisions

Project Partners

• Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project

• Louisiana State University

• National Park Service

• United States Fish and Wildlife Service,

Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge

• United States Geologic Survey

• Waquoit Bay National Estuarine

Research Reserve

• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The distributor does not assume liability.

None

Cite this dataset when used as a source: NOAA retains the right to analyze, synthesize and publish summaries of the NERRS/NSC data. The NERRS/NSC retains the right to be fully credited for having collected and process the data. Following academic courtesy standards, the NERR site where the data were collected should be contacted and fully acknowledged in any subsequent publications in which any part of the data are used. The data enclosed within this package/transmission are only as accurate as the quality assurance and quality control procedures that are described in the associated metadata reporting statement allow. The user bears all responsibility for its subsequent use/misuse in any further analyses or comparisons. The Federal government does not assume liability to the Recipient or third persons, nor will the Federal government reimburse or indemnify the Recipient for its liability due to any losses resulting in any way from the use of this data. Requested citation format: NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) Science Collaborative(NSC).