Changes in Salt Marsh Morphology Due to Hurricane Sandy

该项目利用了2012年11月6日登陆新泽西州的主要沿海热带外风暴——飓风桑迪。拟议的研究将评估桑迪过后和之后一年沿海盐沼的特性和过程，并与现有的风暴前数据进行比较。以特拉华河口的三个盐沼和新泽西州巴内加特湾的三个盐沼为研究对象，确定了短期飓风引起的洪水和沉积与沼泽高程变化、植物和死亡物质积累速率以及土壤和水化学变化的关系。这一建议解决了主要沿海风暴对生态系统结构和功能影响的基本问题。有机会直接观察这一严重干扰对过去利用其他资金长期监测的过程的影响。该提案非常适合RAPID资助机制，因为它解决了与沿海沼泽生态系统动力学相关的重要和基本问题，将使新的和额外的样本收集和分析成为可能，并且具有时间敏感性。至关重要的是，在该地区通常的冬季天气进一步改变系统之前，重新建立地块，采集基线样本并进行初步测量。未来这种规模的风暴的前景表明，有必要了解它们对生态系统动态的影响，作为东海岸新常态的一部分。本项目关于飓风桑迪对当地盐沼影响的信息将对当地湿地管理者（例如，美国鱼类和野生动物管理局、岛屿海滩州立公园）和该地区的沿海社区有用。所获得的信息也将被外推以预测未来风暴事件的影响，将作为适用于其他大西洋沿岸湿地的案例研究，并将促进我们对风暴对湿地生态系统过程的总体影响的理解。

This project takes advantage of the major coastal extra-tropical storm, Hurricane Sandy that came ashore in New Jersey on November 6, 2012. The proposed research will evaluate the properties and processes in the coastal salt marshes immediately after and in the year following Sandy to compare with existing pre-storm data. The relationship of short-term hurricane induced flooding and sedimentation to marsh elevation change, accumulation rates of plants and dead material, and changes in soil and water chemistry will be determined for three salt marshes of the Delaware Estuary and three salt marshes of Barnegat Bay, New Jersey.This proposal addresses fundamental questions about the influences of major coastal storms on ecosystem structure and function. There are opportunities to directly observe effects of this severe disturbance on processes that have been monitored over time in the past with other funding. This proposal is a good fit for the RAPID funding mechanism because it addresses important and fundamental questions related to coastal marsh ecosystem dynamics, will enable new and additional sample collection and analyses, and is time-sensitive. It is critical to get plots re-established, baseline samples taken, and initial measurements made before the systems are further altered by the usual winter weather of this region. The prospect of future storms of this magnitude suggests the need to understand their effects on ecosystem dynamics as part of a new-normal for the East Coast. Information from this project about the impacts of Hurricane Sandy on local salt marshes will be of use to local wetland managers (e.g., U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Island Beach State Park) and to the coastal communities in the area. The information gained will also be extrapolated to predict future storm event effects, will serve as a case study applicable to other Atlantic coast wetlands, and will advance our understanding of storm effects on wetland ecosystem processes in general.