Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

An Evaluation Of Marsh Shoreline Erosion And Sediment Deposition In The Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Mississippi, Usa, Joseph Terrano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal marshes serve important ecologic and economic functions, such as providing habitat, absorbing floodwaters and storm surges, and sequestering carbon. Throughout the northern Gulf of Mexico, coastal marshes are disappearing due to wave attack, sea-level rise, sediment export, and subsidence. Marsh area increases when sediments accumulate at the marsh shoreline, accrete vertically, and when non-marsh areas are colonized by marsh vegetation. Marsh shoreline erosion results in net marsh loss when transgression rates at the marsh-water edge exceed upland-marsh migration. The balance between marsh destroying and marsh creating processes determines the long-term survivability of a marsh system. Thus, processes of shoreline …