Schuerch, M., Vafeidis, A. T., Slawig, Thomas and Temmerman, S. (2013) Modeling the influence of changing storm patterns on the ability of a salt marsh to keep pace with sea level rise. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 118 (1). pp. 84-96. DOI 10.1029/2012jf002471.

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Abstract

[1] Previous predictions on the ability of coastal salt marshes to adapt to future sea level rise (SLR) neglect the influence of changing storm activity that is expected in many regions of the world due to climate change. We present a new modeling approach to quantify this influence on the ability of salt marshes to survive projected SLR, namely, we investigate the separate influence of storm frequency and storm intensity. The model is applied to a salt marsh on the German island of Sylt and is run for a simulation period from 2010 to 2100 for a total of 13 storm scenarios and 48 SLR scenarios. The critical SLR rate for marsh survival, being the maximum rate at which the salt marsh survives until 2100, lies between 19 and 22 mm yr-1. Model results indicate that an increase in storminess can increase the ability of the salt marsh to accrete with sea level rise by up to 3 mm yr-1, if the increase in storminess is triggered by an increase in the number of storm events (storm frequency). Meanwhile, increasing storminess, triggered by an increase in the mean storm strength (storm intensity), is shown to increase the critical SLR rate for which the marsh survives until 2100 by up to 1 mm yr-1 only. On the basis of our results, we suggest that the relative importance of storm intensity and storm frequency for marsh survival strongly depends on the availability of erodible fine-grained material in the tidal area adjacent to the salt marsh.

Document Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Times Cited: 2 Schuerch, M. Vafeidis, A. Slawig, T. Temmerman, S.
Keywords:	salt marsh modeling storm activity sea level rise Wadden Sea accretion processes
Research affiliation:	OceanRep > The Future Ocean - Cluster of Excellence > FO-R01 Kiel University Kiel University > Kiel Marine Science OceanRep > The Future Ocean - Cluster of Excellence OceanRep > The Future Ocean - Cluster of Excellence > FO-R06 OceanRep > The Future Ocean - Cluster of Excellence > FO-R02
Refereed:	Yes
Open Access Journal?:	No
Publisher:	American Chemical Society
Projects:	Future Ocean
Date Deposited:	08 Jul 2014 09:43
Last Modified:	23 Sep 2019 22:49
URI:	https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/25188

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