Medium-term observations of salt marsh morphodynamics

Salt marshes play a key role in attenuating wave energy and promoting sedimentation necessary to potentially adapt sea level rise. The changes the soil surface elevation, as result of spatially temporally varied pattern, affect hydrodynamics, marsh edge extension so rate. Little attention has yet been paid medium-term sedim\entation under influence extension. To fill this gap, we performed 6-year (from 2012 2018) field observation obtain elevation cross-shore tidal flats center Jiangsu Coast (China). salt is extracted from remote sensing images using NVDI technique, which allows us quantify seaward marshes. Results highlight that region varies function topography, inundation frequency distance edge. rate reduces linearly shoreward increasing region. At transition bare flats, follows parabolic relationship with increase but decreases at more landward sites. maximum initially located around mean high-water moves towards elevation. Our observations reveal these dynamics provide unique dataset for development, testing validation numerical simulations enhance predictions overall evolution flats.