Abstract
Understanding the patterns of marsh growth hasprimarily been based on modeling. Empiricalverifications of such models are difficult. This isattributed to the inability of available techniques togenerate past annual accretion rates from marshsediment cores and the need for an extremely longobservation period if a set of present day accretionrates is to be collected and used for such a purpose.Hypothetically, the large variation in temperaturebetween summer and winter, occurring on some saltmarshes, affects the viscosity of the tidal watersinundating and consequently the characteristics of thesediments deposited on the marsh surface. Thevariability of characteristics between seasonallydeposited sediment can be used as annual markers toderive annual accretion rates. Sedimentationexperiments at various temperatures and detailedanalyses of core sediments, cut at 1 mm. intervals,from two selected Humber marshes, were conducted totest the hypothesis.The sedimentation experiments showed that sedimentskewness, a sedimentological characteristic used toindicate the symmetry of the sediment distributioncurve about the mean, is most sensitive to variationsin water temperature and can be used as annual markersin marsh sediments. Detailed sedimentological analysesof two Humber marsh cores showed skew variabilityfollows a low magnitude cyclicity throughout bothcores. Using a 3 year time lag period and thenegative skew peaks as annual markers, correlationbetween a set of peak negative skew values, occurringwithin a dated section of the core, and the averagesummer field temperatures was found to bestatistically significant. The period for sediment toaccumulate within the dated section was calculated toequal the period derived from the dateable pollutanthorizons respectively. Additionally, the annualaccretion rates derived using the negative skew peaksas annual markers are comparable to the observedaverage annual accretion rates previously reported.
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Mohd-Lokman, H., Pethick, J. Seasonality of sediment skewness as a geochronological tool for the Humber salt marshes, U.K.. Wetlands Ecology and Management 9, 1–12 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008403707961
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008403707961