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Hurricane Sandy Effects on Coastal Marsh Elevation Change

Estuaries and Coasts volume 43, pages 1640–1657 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

High-magnitude storm events such as Hurricane Sandy are powerful agents of geomorphic change in coastal marshes, potentially altering their surface elevation trajectories. But how do a storm’s impacts vary across a large region spanning a variety of wetland settings and storm exposures and intensities. We determined the short-term impacts of Hurricane Sandy at 223 surface elevation table–marker horizon stations in estuarine marshes located across the northeast region of the United States by comparing post-storm surface elevation change with pre-storm elevation trends. We hypothesized that the storm’s effect on marsh elevation trends would be influenced by position relative to landfall (right or left) and distance from landfall. The structural equation model presented predicts that marshes located to the left of landfall were more likely to experience an elevation gain greater than expected, and this positive deviation from pre-storm elevation trends tended to have a greater magnitude than those experiencing negative deviations (elevation loss), potentially due to greater sediment deposition. The magnitude of negative deviations from elevation change in marshes to the right of landfall was greater than for positive deviations, with a greater effect in marshes within 200 km of landfall, potentially from the extent and magnitude of storm surge. Overall, results provide an integrated picture of how storm characteristics combined with the local wetland setting are important to a storm’s impact on surface elevation, and that the surface elevation response can vary widely among sites across a region impacted by the same storm.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the following people and institutions that provided data in support of this project (names presented alphabetically):

Anne Giblin, Hap Garritt, Karen Sundberg, and Samantha Bond of the Plum Island Estuary Long-Term Ecological Research site, Massachusetts (funded by National Science Foundation [NSF] Plum Island Ecosystems – Long Term Ecological Research [PIE-LTER] 1637630 and 1238212)

Paul Castelli, Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Oceanville, New Jersey

Ben Gaspar, Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Charlestown, Rhode Island

Christopher Snow, Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Monica Williams, Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Shirley, New York

We wish to acknowledge the following organizations for their funding and logistical support:

Shimon Anisfeld thanks the US Environmental Protection Agency and Connecticut Sea Grant for funding to install and monitor surface elevation table (SET) stations.

Alice Benzecry gratefully acknowledges the support of Fairleigh Dickinson University and Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute (MERI) for funding to install and monitor SET stations. http://meri.njmeadowlands.gov/projects/sea-level-rise-measurements/.

Linda Blum - SET and marker horizon (MH) data collection is based upon work supported by the NSF under Grant Nos. BSR-8702333-06, DEB-9211772, DEB-9411974, DEB-0080381, DEB-0621014, and DEB-1237733. The Virginia Coast Reserve of the Nature Conservancy provided access to study sites. Database citation for this data set is Blum et al. (2017).

J. Patrick Megonigal - SET data from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center was funded by the Department of Energy Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Program (DE-FG02-97ER62458), the US Geologic Survey (G10AC00675), the National Science Foundation Long-Term Research in Environmental Biology Program (DEB-0950080, DEB-1457100, DEB-1557009), Maryland Sea Grant (SA7528082, SA7528114-WW), and the Smithsonian Institution.

Nicole Maher and Adam Starke with The Nature Conservancy in NY acknowledge the generous financial support for this work from the Zegar Family Foundation and the Pritchard Charitable Trust.

William Reay - Maintenance and monitoring of Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (CBNERR) SET-MH stations is supported, in part, by NERR operational awards from the Office of Ocean and Coastal Management, NOAA.

Alice Yeates and Jennifer Olker acknowledge Center for Water and the Environment, Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth (contribution number: 639)

We wish to acknowledge the following people for assistance in field data collection and management, GIS, and in report preparation:

We thank Kristi Nixon, Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth, for GIS assistance. Glenn Guntenspergen thanks Patrick Brennand and Robert Derby for SET-MH installation and monitoring. Ellen Kracauer Hartig thanks New York City Parks partners Rebecca Boger of Brooklyn College, City University of New York (CUNY), for providing funding for installing additional stations and Alice Benzecry of Fairleigh Dickinson University and her students who assisted with monitoring. Jenny Allen and Amanda Garzio-Hadzick assisted in the field at the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Maryland. We thank Toni Mikula and Kate O’Brien at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), and Curtis George at Bombay Hook NWR for their support. Shimon Anisfeld thanks Troy Hill for assistance in monitoring SET-MH stations. Shannon Beliew, US Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, updated the map figures for publication. William Reay thanks Jim Goins and Alex Demeo for assistance in SET-MH station installation and monitoring.

J Grace and Glenn Guntenspergen were supported by the USGS Land Change Science and Ecosystems Programs. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota – Duluth, Duluth, USA

    Alice G. Yeates & Jennifer H. Olker

  2. U.S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, Lafayette, USA

    James B. Grace

  3. U.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, USA

    Glenn R. Guntenspergen & Donald R. Cahoon

  4. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Wells, USA

    Susan Adamowicz

  5. School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, USA

    Shimon C. Anisfeld

  6. Natural Resources Conservation Service, Washington, DC, USA

    Nels Barrett

  7. Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, USA

    Alice Benzecry

  8. Virginia Coast Reserve LTER, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA

    Linda Blum

  9. Virginia Coast Reserve LTER, East Carolina University, Greenville, USA

    Robert R. Christian

  10. Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute, Lyndhurst, USA

    Joseph Grzyb

  11. New York City Parks, New York City, USA

    Ellen Kracauer Hartig

  12. The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York City, USA

    Ellen Kracauer Hartig

  13. The Nature Conservancy, Maryland, DC, Bethesda, USA

    Kelly Hines Leo & Adam Starke

  14. Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, USA

    Scott Lerberg & William Reay

  15. National Park Service, Northeast Coastal & Barrier Network, Washington, DC, USA

    James C. Lynch

  16. The Nature Conservancy, Long Island, NY, USA

    Nicole Maher

  17. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, USA

    J. Patrick Megonigal

  18. Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve, Delaware, USA

    Drexel Siok

  19. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Galloway, USA

    Vincent Turner

  20. Connecticut College, New London, USA

    Scott Warren

Authors
  1. Alice G. Yeates
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  2. James B. Grace
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  3. Jennifer H. Olker
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  4. Glenn R. Guntenspergen
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  5. Donald R. Cahoon
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  6. Susan Adamowicz
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  7. Shimon C. Anisfeld
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  8. Nels Barrett
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  9. Alice Benzecry
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  10. Linda Blum
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  11. Robert R. Christian
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  12. Joseph Grzyb
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  13. Ellen Kracauer Hartig
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  14. Kelly Hines Leo
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  15. Scott Lerberg
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  16. James C. Lynch
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  17. Nicole Maher
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  18. J. Patrick Megonigal
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  19. William Reay
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  20. Drexel Siok
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  21. Adam Starke
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  22. Vincent Turner
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  23. Scott Warren
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donald R. Cahoon.

Additional information

Communicated by: Charles Simenstad

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Yeates, A.G., Grace, J.B., Olker, J.H. et al. Hurricane Sandy Effects on Coastal Marsh Elevation Change. Estuaries and Coasts 43, 1640–1657 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00758-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00758-5

Keywords

  • Hurricane Sandy
  • Marsh dynamics
  • Storm impacts
  • Surface elevation table
  • marker horizon
  • SET-MH
  • Structural equation modeling