Salt marshes as late Holocene tide gauges

Salt marshes

Salt marshes are unique ecosystems that are brimming with diversity, and provide crucial shelter to coastal communities.

Mercury in salt marshes ecosystems: Halimione portulacoides as biomonitor.

Mercury concentrations were quantified in Halimione portulacoides (roots, stems and leaves) as well as in sediments from eight Portuguese estuarine systems, covering seventeen salt marshes with distinct degrees of mercury contamination. The concentration of mercury in the sediments ranged from 0.03 to 17.0 microg g(-1). The results show that the accumulation of mercury differed according to the...

Vertical Motion determined using Satellite Altimetry and tide Gauges

A robust method to estimate vertical crustal motions by combining geocentric sea level measurements from decadal (1992 2003) TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite altimetry and long-term (> 40 years) relative sea level records from tide gauges using a novel Gauss-Markov stochastic adjustment model is presented. These results represent an improvement over a prior study (Kuo et al. 2004) in Fennoscandia, wher...

Die-Off of Southern U.S. Salt Marshes

Uncertain future of New England salt marshes

Salt marsh plant communities have long been envisioned as dynamic, resilient systems that quickly recover from human impacts and natural disturbances. But are salt marshes sufficiently resilient to withstand the escalating intensity and scale of human impacts in coastal environments? In this study we examined the independent and interactive effects of emerging threats to New England salt marshe...