Publication Date
1-1-2024
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Estuaries and Coasts
DOI
10.1007/s12237-024-01392-1
Abstract
Salt marshes exist at the terrestrial-marine interface, providing important ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration. Tidal inputs play a dominant role in salt marsh porewater mixing, and terrestrially derived freshwater inputs are increasingly recognized as important sources of water and solutes to intertidal wetlands. However, there remains a critical gap in understanding the role of freshwater inputs on salt marsh hydrology, and how this may impact marsh subsurface salinity and plant productivity. Here, we address this knowledge gap by examining the hydrologic behavior, porewater salinity, and pickleweed (Sarcocornia pacifica also known as Salicornia pacifica) plant productivity along a salt marsh transect in an estuary along the central coast of California. Through the installation of a suite of hydrometric sensors and routine porewater sampling and vegetation surveys, we sought to understand how seasonal changes in terrestrial freshwater inputs impact salt marsh ecohydrologic processes. We found that salt marsh porewater salinity, shallow subsurface saturation, and pickleweed productivity are closely coupled with elevated upland water level during the winter and spring, and more influenced by tidal inputs during the summer and fall. This seasonal response indicates a switch in salt marsh hydrologic connectivity with the terrestrial upland that impacts ecosystem functioning. Through elucidating the interannual impacts of drought on salt marsh hydrology, we found that the severity of drought and historical precipitation can impact contemporary hydrologic behavior and the duration and timing of the upland-marsh hydrologic connectivity. This implies that the sensitivity of salt marshes to climate change involves a complex interaction between sea level rise and freshwater inputs that vary at seasonal to interannual timescales.
Funding Number
DE-SC0021044
Funding Sponsor
U.S. Department of Energy
Keywords
Climate change, Coastal hydrology, Freshwater inputs, Salt marsh, Sea level rise, Terrestrial-marine interface
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
Recommended Citation
Maya S. Montalvo, Emilio Grande, Anna E. Braswell, Ate Visser, Bhavna Arora, Erin C. Seybold, Corianne Tatariw, John C. Haskins, Charlie A. Endris, Fuller Gerbl, Mong Han Huang, Darya Morozov, and Margaret A. Zimmer. "A Fresh Take: Seasonal Changes in Terrestrial Freshwater Inputs Impact Salt Marsh Hydrology and Vegetation Dynamics" Estuaries and Coasts (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-024-01392-1
