Climate change impacts on erosion, mass wasting, and the supply of sediment to tidal wetlands in the Northeast

Project Leader:

Brian Yellen

Jon Woodruff

Timothy Cook

Project Fellows:

Caroline Ladlow

Douglas Beach

Partners:

Resource Managers

Federal agencies

US Geological Survey (USGS) Science Centers

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

NGOs

Educators

Research community

University of Massachusetts

State agencies

New York Department of Environmental Conservation

+6 more

States:

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont

Massachusetts

New York

+2 more

Status:

Ongoing

Overview

Climate change is likely to impact erosion rates, the magnitude and frequency of extreme rainfall/mass wasting events, and the accumulation of sediment in coastal areas. However, long-term rates of erosion and sediment delivery to coastal systems are poorly constrained and there is limited understanding of the relative effects of climate change versus land-use change on these processes. Furthermore, existing instrumental and historical observations are inadequate for constraining the frequency of extreme events and evaluating the potential for changes in the magnitude and frequency of these events through time.

This project will bolster two distinct but related research projects: (1) an ongoing study by Jonathan Woodruff and Brian Yellen investigating the vulnerability of tidal marshes in the northeastern US to ongoing sea level rise and the impacts of climate and land use change on the supply of sediment from upstream tributaries to these wetland systems, and (2) an ongoing investigation of climatic control of long-term changes in upland erosion and the frequency of flood induced mass-wasting in the northeastern US by Timothy Cook. This project will build off of a pre-existing NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative supported project to evaluate the impact of dam-impounded sediments on wetland sustainability in the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve (HRNERR). The additional NE CASC funds allows for graduate involvement in this project and provide support for linking the HRNERR project with a separate study by co-PI Tim Cook who, as a 2018-2019 Charles Bullard Fellowship at Harvard Forest, is evaluating climatic and land use impacts on sediment yields for the Northeast Region.

Publications

Castagno, K. A., Donnelly, J. P., & Woodruff, J. D. (2021). Grain-Size Analysis of Hurricane-Induced Event Beds in a New England Salt Marsh, Massachusetts, USA. Journal Of Coastal Research, 37(2). http://doi.org/10.2112/jcoastres-d-19-00159.1

Baranes, H. E., Woodruff, J. D., Talke, S. A., Kopp, R. E., Ray, R. D., & DeConto, R. M. (2020). Tidally Driven Interannual Variation in Extreme Sea Level Frequencies in the Gulf of Maine. Journal Of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 125(10). http://doi.org/10.1029/2020jc016291

Ralston, D. K., Yellen, B., Woodruff, J. D., & Fernald, S. (2020). Turbidity Hysteresis in an Estuary and Tidal River Following an Extreme Discharge Event. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(15). http://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl088005

Castagno, K. A., Donnelly, J. P., & Woodruff, J. D. (2021). Storm Processes and Salt Marsh Dynamics. In Salt Marshes: Function, Dynamics and Stresses (pp. 257-277). Cambridge University Press. http://doi.org/10.1017/9781316888933.012

Presentations

AGU, Findings from impoundment sediments. December, 2018.

Stakeholder Workshop : Climate change impacts on erosion, mass wasting, and the supply of sediment to tidal wetlands in the Northeast. Norrie Point Field Station, Livingston Mills, NY. June 4, 2018.

Cook, T., Northeastern Section of the Geological Society of America, March, 2019

Yellen, B. Hudson River Environmental Symposium, May 2019.

Cook, T., Wolman Club Annual Meeting, Lancaster, PA, June 2019.

Ralston D., Yellen, B., Woodruff, J., Impacts of dam removals on sediment supply, transport, and deposition in the Hudson River estuary, Coastal Estuarine Research Federation Bienniel Conference, Mobile, AL, Nov., 2019

Ralston, D., Yellen, B., Woodruff, J., Fernald, S., Ladlow, C., Ferguson, O., Cooper, E., In the tidal Hudson River, sediment from dam removals has little impact on turbidity or marsh resilience, and many marshes are currently growing faster than SLR, National Estuarine Research Reserve System Annual Meeting, Nov., 2019

Dams and Sediment on the Hudson (DASH) Advisory Meeting and Workshop (led by UMASS/WHOI team), Nov., 2019, Norrie Point, Saatsburg, NY (~30 participants)

Climate Ready Boston (Greater Boston Research Advisory Group Report), Feb. 13, 2020 advisory group meeting discussing preliminary results for chapter on sea level rise and flooding co-authored by DeConto, Woodruff, Baranes (NE CASC fellow), Halberstadt (NE CASC Fellow)

MA Salt Marsh working group and heading up sediment dynamics sub-group (Feb 10)

+5 more

Other

Contributing Author, (2019), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC), Chapter 4: Sea Level Rise and Implications for Low Lying Islands, Coasts and Communities, Cambridge University Press

Climate Ready Boston (Greater Boston Research Advisory Group (gBRAG)), Contributing Author on Chapter on Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding, 2019-Present