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Land-use change

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Tidal Erosion And Upstream Sediment Trapping Modulate Records Of Land-Use Change In A Formerly Glaciated New England Estuary, Justin L. Shawler, Christopher J. Hein, Elizabeth A. Canuel, Et Al Nov 2019

Tidal Erosion And Upstream Sediment Trapping Modulate Records Of Land-Use Change In A Formerly Glaciated New England Estuary, Justin L. Shawler, Christopher J. Hein, Elizabeth A. Canuel, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Land clearing, river impoundments, and other human modifications to theupland landscape and within estuarine systems can drive coastal change at local to regionalscales. However, as compared with mid-latitude coasts, the impacts of human modificationsalong sediment-starved formerly glaciated coastal landscapes are relatively understudied.To address this gap, we present a late-Holocene record of changing sediment accumulationrates and sediment sources from sediment cores collected across a tidal flat in theMerrimack River estuary (Mass., USA). We pairsedimentology, geochronology, bulk- andstable-isotope organic geochemistry, and hydrodynamic simulations with historical datato evaluate human and natural impacts on coastal sediment fluxes. During the 17th to19th centuries, accumulation rates …


Primary Production In The Delta: Then And Now, James E. Cloern, April Robinson, (...), Elizabeth A. Canuel, Et Al Jan 2016

Primary Production In The Delta: Then And Now, James E. Cloern, April Robinson, (...), Elizabeth A. Canuel, Et Al

VIMS Articles

To evaluate the role of restoration in the recovery of the Delta ecosystem, we need to have clear targets and performance measures that directly assess ecosystem function. Primary production is a crucial ecosystem process, which directly limits the quality and quantity of food available for secondary consumers such as invertebrates and fish. The Delta has a low rate of primary production, but it is unclear whether this was always the case. Recent analyses from the Historical Ecology Team and Delta Landscapes Project provide quantitative comparisons of the areal extent of 14 habitat types in the modern Delta versus the historical …