Coastal marsh resilience to sea level rise: a field, flume and modelling study on the role of bio-geomo hic self-organization.

Tidal marshes are valuable coastal ecosystems that are threatened by global climate warming and resulting sea level rise. Whether they drown or continue to exist while sea level rises, depends on the trapping of sediments (sand and mud) that builds up the land surface. The sediment trapping is locally determined by so-called bio-geomo hic interactions between plants, water flow, and landform changes. However, the larger landscape also self-organizes by developing a channel network between vegetation patches, and by transporting the sediment through the channels towards the marsh. We will investigate how the small-scale (m²) bio-geomo hic interactions determine the large-scale (km²) self-organization of tidal marsh landscapes and how this affects their adaptability to sea level rise. The aim of this project is to investigate, for the first time, the impact of specific traits of plant species on the self-organization and capacity of marshes to rise with sea level. We test the hypotheses that (1) different plant species lead to the formation of different self-organized tidal channel networks; and (2) the resulting channel networks determine the efficiency to distribute and trap sediments in response to sea level rise. This will be investigated based on a unique combination of field surveys, scaled lab experiments, and computer simulations.

Keywords:COASTAL WETLANDS, SEA LEVEL RISE

Disciplines:Coastal geography, Geomorphology and landscape evolution

Project type:Collaboration project