Daniel Belknap
Department of Earth Sciences
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469
207.581.2159
belknap@maine.edu
http://climatechange.umaine.edu/Directory/people/belknap.html

Joseph Kelley
Department of Earth Sciences
University of Maine

Cynthia Loftin
USGS Cooperative Research Unit

Salt marshes protect coastal lands from flooding and erosion, absorbing the impacts of storms and high tides while maintaining water quality and providing habitat for fish, birds, and other wildlife. Sea level is a major physical factor controlling salt marshes, which exist in the narrow range between high and low tides. For the last 300 years, sea level has been rising at a more rapid rate than the historic long-term average, and predictions of accelerated sea-level rise threaten to erode and drown salt marshes along the Maine coast, especially where they don’t have room to “migrate” inland.

Belknap, Kelley, Loftin, and their students will map selected environments in a series of sites along the coast and document change in salt marshes over time with detailed sequential air-photo analysis, ground penetrating radar and coring, and measurements of salinity, temperature, and water depth. Establishing the nature and rates of change at the “critical leading edge” of salt marshes where they overlap with upland environments will help coastal managers and land owners understand risks of sea-level rise to property and infrastructure, and also inform long-term planning and land conservation efforts.

Two-year project, 2010-2012
Total Sea Grant funds: $156,945