Flow hydrodynamics on a mudflat and in salt marsh vegetation: identifying general relationships for habitat characterisations

Abstract

We present an overview of a large collaborative field campaign, in which we collected a long-term (months) high-resolution (4 Hz measurement frequency) hydrodynamic data set for several locations at the mudflat-salt marsh ecosystem and linked this to data on sediment transport and to a biological description of the organisms on the mudflat and the marsh. In this paper, part of this database has been used to identify general relationships that can be used for making hydrodynamic characterisations of mudflat-salt marsh ecosystems. We observed a clear linear relation between tidal amplitude and the maximum current velocity, both at the mudflat as well as within the marsh vegetation. Velocities in the vegetation were however a magnitude lower than those on the mudflat. This relationship offers promising possibilities for making hydrodynamic habitat characterisations and for validating hydrodynamic models.

Wave Attenuation at a Salt Marsh Margin: A Case Study of an Exposed Coast on the Yangtze Estuary

“…6) is in line with observations made in flume studies (Bouma et al 2005b(Bouma et al , 2010). An earlier field study also reported that the most rapid attenuation of waves occurs over the most seaward 10 m of a salt marsh (Möller and Spencer 2002).…”

“…Compared with the large number of studies that have investigated currents in tidal wetlands (e.g. Leonard and Luther 1995;Shi et al 1995;Allen 2000;Christiansen et al 2000;Neumeier and Ciavola 2004;Bouma et al 2005b and references therein), relatively few studies have focused on wave attenuation.…”

The secret gardener: vegetation and the emergence of biogeomorphic patterns in tidal environments

“…At a smaller scale, zonation patterns, a mosaic of sharply bounded and nearly homogeneous vegetation patches, are widespread in marshes worldwide [8][9][10]. Indeed, many aspects of tidal biogeomorphodynamics and of the associated patterns have been seen to be tightly linked to interactions between biotic and abiotic processes [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

Numerical study of hydrodynamic and salinity transport process in Pink Beach wetlands of Liao River Estuary, China

“…Christiansen et al (2000) introduced the physical processes of controlling mineral sediment deposition on a meso-tidal salt marsh surface on the Atlantic Coast of Virginia; wetland plants patches reduce flow velocities locally and enhance sedimentation inside the patches. Bouma et al (2005) collected a series of hydrodynamic data from the Scheldt Estuary beaches and swamps, and 5…”