Photo: Fox River Flats, located at the head of Kachemak Bay, is one of four salt marshes monitored annually by the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve. Here the ACCS and KBNERR vegetation team collects data on plant species, density and percent cover.
This August, KBNERR and Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS) staff partnered with a steam of geologists from the University of Rhode Island (Erin Peck and Lilah Saunders), Desert Research Institute (Sophie Wensman), and the University of Washington (Kendall Valentine and Kendall Fontenot) to collect sediment cores and measure geomorphic parameters, such as elevation and sediment strength, along transects from salt marshes in Kachemak Bay, including Fox River, Beluga Slough, China Poot, and Sadie Cove. The sediment data will help assess how the salt marshes have changed over the last century and what important factors influence their geomorphology to aid in management decision-making.
These four salt marshes are part of KBNERR’s long term monitoring program, and while KBNERR and ACCS surveyed the vegetation in 1-meter square plots along multiple transects, the sediment core team extracted sediment in pvc tubes and measured elevations throughout the marsh.
The researchers are part of the informal Alaska Salt Marsh Consoritium alongside the ACCS vegetation ecology program, and they are supporting monitoring throughout Alaska’s statewide coastal marshes. We look forward to the stories the data will tell: Where are sediment loads coming from? What are the rates of accumulation over time? What are the effects on vegetation growth? This in turn impacts species of value that utilize these marshes, such as migrating shorebirds, fish, wildlife, and cattle in the case of Fox River Flats, and will further refine emerging research questions.
Photo: Geologists from University of Rhode Island, University of WA, and Dessert Research Institute collect sediment data in Kachemak Bay salt marshes.
Tidal marshes protect people and property against storm surges and flooding, improve water quality, create habitat for important fish, birds and wildlife, and offer many opportunities for outdoor recreation. In 2010, the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve joined a national study to evaluate the ability of these important habitats to thrive as sea levels change. That led to four long-term saltmarsh stations in Kachemak Bay, each monitoring emergent vegetation, marsh surface elevation, water elevation, and soil temperature.
A huge thank you to the Alaska Salt Marsh Consortium, and to Sam Walker and Hannah Bradley for transportation and ATV-staging support to and from Fox River Flats this year.
