Salt marshes are grassy wetlands that form along sheltered coastlines. These areas provide crucial habitats for many species of birds and other animals, in addition to recreational activities and economic opportunities. Marshes also protect the coast from storms and filter runoff from the landscape, ensuring cleaner and healthier coastal waters. As climate change causes sea levels to rise salt marshes are at risk of being drowned out if they are unable to grow quickly enough to stay above the rising tides. In order to build elevation and endure sea level rise, marshes trap sediment from tidal waters, which accumulates over time to build a platform that marsh grass can grow on. Along exposed coasts, humans have built seawalls and [...]
Summary
Salt marshes are grassy wetlands that form along sheltered coastlines. These areas provide crucial habitats for many species of birds and other animals, in addition to recreational activities and economic opportunities. Marshes also protect the coast from storms and filter runoff from the landscape, ensuring cleaner and healthier coastal waters. As climate change causes sea levels to rise salt marshes are at risk of being drowned out if they are unable to grow quickly enough to stay above the rising tides. In order to build elevation and endure sea level rise, marshes trap sediment from tidal waters, which accumulates over time to build a platform that marsh grass can grow on.
Along exposed coasts, humans have built seawalls and other structures to protect homes and infrastructure from erosion. It is believed that reduced erosion as a result of this “coastal armoring” has made it harder for salt marshes to thrive along urbanizing, armored shorelines, as they no longer receive sediment from eroding coasts. This project will use satellite imagery to observe how sediment in coastal waters along the Northeast U.S. varies in response to coastal armoring. A network of sediment samples and cores from marshes with and without armoring will then be analyzed to see if urban marshes receive less sediment following armoring. The data can then provide scientists and coastal decision makers with information on how to help marshes survive sea level rise. If coastal armoring and reduced sediment supply is found to be a contributor of salt marsh deterioration, effective solutions to restore the lost sediment may then be determined. The results of this work will be available to coastal decision makers through partners at NOAA and the USGS.
A document to support decisions regarding coastal armoring and saltmarsh restoration will be produced and distributed through NOAA’s Digital Coast suite of tools. The Coastal Sediment Fact Sheet will provide an overview summary of the main findings regarding the impacts of coastal armoring on suspended sediment supply to marshes.
repository
This fact sheet will be distributed through NOAA’s Digital Coast tools listings, here: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools Pending discussions with our advisory committee, we may distribute this tool via other means as well.
qualityChecks
NA
format
NA
restrictions
NA
backupAndStorage
NA
dataManagementResources
NA
volumeEstimate
10 MB
dataProcessing
NA
name
Coastal Armoring and Salt Marshes Fact Sheet
metadata
The metadata for our data product will follow the FGDC-CSDGM standard and use .XML format.
exclusiveUse
None
description
Based on our assessment of regional, near shore Suspended Sediment Concentrations (SSC), we will publish a series of maps showing the prevailing SSC patterns, as well as seasonal and decadal changes. These will be provided in GeoTiff format.
repository
These geospatial data products will be distributed through NOAA’s Digital Coast tools: https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools Pending discussions with our advisory committee, we may distribute this tool via other means as well.
qualityChecks
We will check our observational outputs against model results from USGS’s COAWST model: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/whcmsc/science/coawst-coupled-ocean-atmosphere-wave-sediment-transport-modeling-system
format
GeoTiff
restrictions
None
backupAndStorage
NA
dataManagementResources
We will work with project supporter Jamie Carter at NOAA to develop a plan for hosting these data products on their Digital Coast portal.
volumeEstimate
1 GB
dataProcessing
NA
name
Derived SSC Concentration Maps
existingInput
fees
None.
description
To assess changing tidal marsh sedimentation in Jamaica Bay, NY, we will rely on publicly available data from the Blue Carbon Atlas, as well as sediment core data shared with the authors by Cathleen Wigand of the EPA for the PIs’ ongoing blue carbon mapping project.
source
Sediment Data Sources: Smithsonian Institution Blue Carbon Atlas: https://ccrcn.shinyapps.io/CoastalCarbonAtlas/
qualityChecks
All data in the Blue Carbon Atlas have been subjected to Smithsonian’s QA/QC procedures.
citation
https://ccrcn.shinyapps.io/CoastalCarbonAtlas/
format
Sediment core data format: publicly available sediment core bulk density and organic content data are available in CSV format.
restrictions
None.
backupAndStorage
Describe the approach for backup and storage of the information associated with the research project during the project.
volumeEstimate
100 MB
dataProcessing
Reported values of organic fraction (loss on ignition, LOI) provided by the data repository will be used directly.
name
Satellite Data
history
2022-06-08 09:34:52 MDT: phase Approved DMP
newInput
metadata
Metadata will be provided in ISO standard format.
exclusiveUse
Project data and associated products will be made available publicly at the end of the project.
description
New sediment cores associated with this project will be collected during year 1 during one week of field work, with associated lab work also to be completed during year 1. Data from these sediment cores will include down-core elemental abundances, organic content, bulk density, and radionuclides to constrain age. All of these measurements will be made in the PIs’ lab at UMass Amherst. All data will be made public upon completion of the project funding in non-proprietary text (csv) format.
repository
Data will be stored as a new collection in ScienceBase. Soil carbon data will also be uploaded to the Coastal Carbon Atlas: https://ccrcn.shinyapps.io/CoastalCarbonAtlas/
qualityChecks
Data will be entered into spreadsheets with pre-labeled columns and formulae. Conditional spreadsheet formatting will identify keystroke errors in entering the data that result in erroneous values.
protocols
Standard protocols unfortunately do not exist for the collection of tidal marsh soil characteristics. We will use protocols based on an ongoing project in our lab assessing carbon content of salt marsh soils. These protocols are as follows:1. Split and describe core; 2. Use a 25 mm internal diameter by 27 mm deep hole saw to extract a fixed volume sample for bulk density analysis; 3. Dry the sediment and weigh it to determine the dry bulk density; 4. Combust the sediment for 4 hr at 550 degrees C and record the change in sample mass to determine soil organic matter fraction.
format
Data from sediment cores will be recorded and maintained in cloud-based spreadsheets to ensure real time backup of all measurements. Data will be packaged for archive and distribution in plain text CSV format.
restrictions
None
backupAndStorage
All data will be entered into cloud-based spreadsheets and data storage platforms to assure continuous backup and assure version control.
dataManagementResources
PI Yellen will oversee data management procedures throughout the project. Our team will rely on University-provided cloud storage and collaboration solutions (OneDrive) to store and manage data. In year three, one half moth of Dr. Yellen’s time will be used to coordinate with graduate student Wenxiu Teng and co-investigators to write metadata and organize data for archiving at USGS’s ScienceBase data repository. We estimate that these activities represent 15% of Dr. Yellen’s time on the project throughout the three years, and 25 % of Mr. Teng’s time in Year 3. In total, the total expected expenditure for data management and archiving is approximately $20,000, or 5% of the total project budget.
volumeEstimate
100 MB
dataProcessing
Soil organic matter fraction will be calculated as the change in sample mass after burning divided by the total dry sample mass. Dry bulk density will be determined by dry sample mass divided by the volume of our fixed volume hole saw sampler.