Journal article
Runnels mitigate marsh drowning in microtidal salt marshes
FRONTIERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, v 10, 987246
03 Nov 2022
PMID: 36507472
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
As a symptom of accelerated sea level rise and historic impacts to tidal hydrology from agricultural and mosquito control activities, coastal marshes in the Northeastern U.S. are experiencing conversion to open water through edge loss, widening and headward erosion of tidal channels, and the formation and expansion of interior ponds. These interior ponds often form in high elevation marsh, confounding the notion applied in predictive modeling that salt marshes convert to open water when elevation falls below a critical surface inundation threshold. The installation of tidal channel extension features, or runnels, is a technique that has been implemented to reduce water levels and permit vegetation reestablishment in drowning coastal marshes, although there are limited data available to recommend its advisability. We report on 5 years of vegetation and hydrologic monitoring of two locations where a total of 600-m of shallow (0.15-0.30-m in diameter and depth) runnels were installed in 2015 and 2016 to enhance drainage, in the Pettaquamscutt River Estuary, in southern Rhode Island, United States. Results from this Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) designed study found that runnel installation successfully promoted plant recolonization, although runnels did not consistently promote increases in high marsh species presence or diversity. Runnels reduced the groundwater table (by 0.07-0.12 m), and at one location, the groundwater table experienced a 2-fold increase in the fraction of the in-channel tidal range that was observed in the marsh water table. We suggest that restoration of tidal hydrology through runnel installation holds promise as a tool to encourage revegetation and extend the lifespan of drowning coastal marshes where interior ponds are expanding. In addition, our study highlights the importance of considering the rising groundwater table as an important factor in marsh drowning due to expanding interior ponds found on the marsh platform.
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Details
- Title
- Runnels mitigate marsh drowning in microtidal salt marshes
- Publication Details
- FRONTIERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, v 10, 987246
- Publisher
- FRONTIERS MEDIA SA; LAUSANNE
- Grant note
- Runnel implementation and vegetation monitoring was supported by the Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency Competitive Grant Program administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Hydrological monitoring and data analysis was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1946302. Publication open access fees were paid by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Drexel University
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000886586300001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85142120552
- Other Identifier
- 991021860726704721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Environmental Sciences