Optimal hurricane overwash thickness for maximizing marsh resilience to sea level rise.

摘要: UNLABELLED The interplay between storms and sea level rise, ecology sediment transport governs the behavior of rapidly evolving coastal ecosystems such as marshes barrier islands. Sediment deposition during hurricanes is thought to increase resilience salt rise by increasing soil elevation vegetation productivity. We use mesocosms simulate burial Spartina alterniflora hurricane-induced overwash events various thickness (0-60 cm), find that adventitious root growth within layer increases total biomass up 120%. In contrast most previous work illustrating a simple positive relationship depth productivity, our reveals an optimum (5-10 cm) beyond which leads plant mortality. with flooding frequency, indicating storm ameliorates stress, its impact on productivity will become more important under accelerated rise. Our results suggest frequent, low magnitude associated naturally migrating islands may in turn, slow island migration rates. SYNTHESIS deeper than reduced or mortality marsh vegetation, suggests future intense artificial heightening dunes could lead less resilient marshes.