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In coastal marshes, low-permeability mud is often found overlying high permeability sandy deposits. A recently developed 3D creek-marsh model was used to investigate the effects of soil stratigraphy (a mud layer overlying a sandy-loam layer) on pore-water flow in the marsh.Simulation results showed significant modifications of tide-induced pore-water flow due to the layered soil. The presence of the lower sandy-loam layer with a relatively high hydraulic conductivity not only increased the pore-water flow speed but also changed the flow direction, particularly in the upper mud layer where enhanced vertical flow dominated. Particle tracking revealed large changes in the overall pore-water circulation pattern, and associated particle travel path and time due to the influence of the soil stratigraphy. While the amount of water exchange between the marsh soil and tidal water increased, the residence time of particles in both soil layers was reduced. Sensitivity analysis showed the importance of soil compressibility, capillary rise and hydraulic conductivity contrast between the soil layers in modulating the effect of soil stratigraphy. In particular, the total net influx and efflux across the marsh surface (including the creek/channel bank and bed) increased proportionally with the square root of the lower layer's hydraulic conductivity. These results demonstrated the interplay of tides, marsh topography and soil stratigraphy in controlling the pore-water flow characteristics, which underpin solute transport and transformation as well as the aeration condition in the marsh soil.  Flow in the two-layer marsh differs dramatically from that in a homogeneous marsh. The underlying sandy-loam layer modifies significantly the pore-water circulation. We examine effects of soil compressibility, capillarity and hydraulic conductivity.

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Salt is a key solute in salt marshes and under the influence of evapotranspiration can accumulate to a high concentration level in the marsh soil and precipitate in the solid form to become a significant stressor for plants, affecting marsh plant productivity and ecological zonation. Numerical simulations of coupled pore water flow and salt transport were conducted to examine how spring-neap tides and evaporation combine to influence salt dynamics and distribution patterns in marshes. The salt pan formation was simulated with a sandy loam marsh soil subjected to a medium rate of potential evaporation. The critical condition for the salt pan formation was underpinned by hydraulic connection between the marsh surface and water table to sustain evaporation in the supratidal zone. Both low soil permeability and overly high potential evaporation were found to break the hydraulic connection. In this case, the surface soil salinity increased gradually over the intertidal zone to a maximum around the spring high tide mark followed by a rapid decrease to a lower constant level across the supratidal zone. This salinity distribution pattern has also been observed in the field. In both salt marshes with and without salt pans, excessive salt accumulated on the marsh surface due to evaporation was removed by tidally induced circulating flow and/or flow driven by density gradients associated with the accumulated salt. The salt dynamics and distribution patterns revealed here, especially the salt pan formation simulated for the first time, have important implications for studies of marsh plant growth and overall eco-functions.

Spatial and temporal salinity variations in surface water and pore water commonly exist in salt marshes under the combined influence of tidal inundation, precipitation, evapotranspiration, and inland freshwater input. Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations were conducted to investigate how density gradients associated with salinity variations affect pore water flow in the salt marsh system. The results showed that upward salinity (density) gradients could lead to flow instability and the formation of salt fingers. These fingers, varying in size with the distance from the creek, modified significantly the pore water flow field, especially in the marsh interior. While the flow instability enhanced local salt transport and mixing considerably, the net effect was small, causing only a slight increase in the overall mass exchange across the marsh surface. In contrast, downward salinity gradients exerted less influence on the pore water flow in the marsh soil and slightly weakened the surface water and groundwater exchange across the marsh surface. Numerical simulations revealed similar density effects on pore water flow at the field scale under realistic conditions. These findings have important implications for studies of marsh soil conditions concerning plant growth as well as nutrient exchange between the marsh and coastal marine system.

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[1] Parlange and Brutsaert (1987) derived a modified Boussinesq equation to account for the capillary effect on water table dynamics in unconfined aquifers. Barry et al. (1996) solved this equation subject to a periodic boundary condition. Their solution shows significant influence of capillarity on water table fluctuations, which evolve to finiteamplitude standing waves at the high frequency limit. Here we propose a new governing equation for the water table, which considers both horizontal and vertical flows in an unsaturated zone of finite thickness. An approximate analytical solution for periodic water table fluctuations based on the new equation was derived. In agreement with previous results, the analytical solution shows that the unsaturated zone's storage capacity permits water table fluctuations to propagate more readily than predicted by the Boussinesq equation. Furthermore, the new solution reveals a capping effect of the unsaturated zone on both the amplitude and phase of the water table fluctuations as well as the water table overheight. Due to the finite thickness of the unsaturated zone, the capillary effect on water table fluctuations is modified mainly with reduced amplitude damping and phase shift.

Sloping coastal aquifers in reality are ubiquitous and well documented. Steady state sharp‐interface analytical solutions for describing seawater intrusion in sloping confined and unconfined coastal aquifers are developed based on the Dupuit‐Forchheimer approximation. Specifically, analytical solutions based on the constant‐flux inland boundary condition are derived by solving the discharge equation for the interface zone with the continuity conditions of the head and flux applied at the interface between the freshwater zone and the interface zone. Analytical solutions for the constant‐head inland boundary are then obtained by developing the relationship between the inland freshwater flux and hydraulic head and combining this relationship with the solutions of the constant‐flux inland boundary. It is found that for the constant‐flux inland boundary, the shape of the saltwater interface is independent of the geometry of the bottom confining layer for both aquifer types, despite that the geometry of the bottom confining layer determines the location of the interface tip. This is attributed to that the hydraulic head at the interface is identical to that of the coastal boundary, so the shape of the bed below the interface is irrelevant to the interface position. Moreover, developed analytical solutions with an empirical factor on the density factor are in good agreement with the results of variable‐density flow numerical modeling. Analytical solutions developed in this study provide a powerful tool for assessment of seawater intrusion in sloping coastal aquifers as well as in coastal aquifers with a known freshwater flux but an arbitrary geometry of the bottom confining layer.