Erosion and deposition in tidal marshes revisited by accounting for soil creep

Abstract:

Channels regulate the sediment dynamics of tidal marshes, affect the capacity of marsh platforms to keep pace with sea level rise and can contribute to the loss of the low marsh, a critical area for nutrient cycling and ecosystem services. A puzzling aspect of marsh dynamics is the occurrence of slumping on the channel banks despite the absence of channel widening and migration. An apparently unrelated conundrum is why vertical accretion rates on the low marsh adjacent to channels are often higher than the rate of relative sea level rise: this sedimentation excess should not occur in a regime of equilibrium or in a regime of accelerated sea level rise. Here I suggest that bank erosion and sedimentation surplus are linked and can be explained by soil creep, the process by which soil is moved downslope by gravity. A novel model for a channel-platform cross section predicts an equilibrium state where the sedimentation surplus on the channel banks is transferred by creep toward the channel, where an erosional surplus and a suspend load transport toward the bank close the sediment budget. This model predicts that bank slumping can occur even if marshes are in equilibrium with sea level rise. As a consequence slumping is not an unequivocal indicator of ongoing marsh loss. The model also predicts that, at equilibrium, sedimentation rates adjacent to channels are higher than the rate of sea level rise. This implies that a sedimentation surplus is not a sign of resilience to sea level rise acceleration. The framework proposed by the model will affect how erosion and deposition measurements adjacent to marsh channels are interpreted.