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Geology topics

M. L. Kirwan

Publications and source records attributed to M. L. Kirwan.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2012

Numerical models of salt marsh evolution: ecological, geomorphic, and climatic factors

Salt marshes are delicate landforms at the boundary between the sea and land. These ecosystems support a diverse biota that modifies the erosive characteristics of the substrate and mediates sediment transport processes. Here we present a broad overview of recent numerical models that quantify the formation and evolution of salt marshes under different physical and ecological drivers. In particular, we focus on the coupling between geomorphological and ecological processes and on how these feedbacks are included in predictive models of landform evolution. We describe in detail models that simulate fluxes of water, organic matter, and sediments in salt marshes. The interplay between biological and morphological processes often produces a distinct scarp between salt marshes and tidal flats. Numerical models can capture the dynamics of this boundary and the progradation or regression of the marsh in time. Tidal channels are also key features of the marsh landscape, flooding and draining the marsh platform and providing a source of sediments and nutrients to the marsh ecosystem. In recent years, several numerical models have been developed to describe the morphogenesis and long-term dynamics of salt marsh channels. Finally, salt marshes are highly sensitive to the effects of long-term climatic change. We therefore discuss in detail how numerical models have been used to determine salt marsh survival under different scenarios of sea level rise.

Reviews of Geophysics↗
USGS2011

Enhanced decomposition offsets enhanced productivity and soil carbon accumulation in coastal wetlands responding to climate change

Coastal wetlands are responsible for about half of all carbon burial in oceans, and their persistence as a valuable ecosystem depends largely on the ability to accumulate organic material at rates equivalent to relative sea level rise. Recent work suggests that elevated CO 2 and temperature warming will increase organic matter productivity and the ability of marshes to survive sea level rise. However, we find in a series of preliminary experiments that organic decomposition rates increase by about 20% per degree of warming. Our measured temperature sensitivity is similar to studies from terrestrial systems, three times as high as the response of salt marsh productivity to temperature warming, and greater than the productivity response associated with elevated CO 2 in C 3 marsh plants. Although the experiments were simple and of short duration, they suggest that enhanced CO 2 and warmer temperatures could actually make marshes less resilient to sea level rise, and tend to promote a release of soil carbon. Simple projections indicate that elevated temperatures will increase rates of sea level rise more than any acceleration in organic matter accumulation, suggesting the possibility of a positive feedback between climate, sea level rise, and carbon emissions in coastal environments.

Virginia↗
USGS2008

Tidal marshes as disequilibrium landscapes? Lags between morphology and Holocene sea level change

Historical acceleration in the rate of global sea level rise and recent observations of marsh degradation highlight the importance of understanding how marshes respond to sea level change. Here, we use an existing numerical model to demonstrate that marsh morphology, and its effect on biological productivity and vertical accretion, could lag century-scale sea level rise rate oscillations by several decades. This suggests that marshes, and perhaps other intertidal environments, have not been in equilibrium with Holocene sea level. Additional results suggest that marshes have not yet fully responded to historical sea level acceleration. Consequently, marshes today may be out of equilibrium with modern rates of sea level rise, and further adjustment in the form of platform deepening and channel erosion could be expected. Under an accelerating sea level rise rate, the morphology and productivity of marshland will reflect environmental conditions of the past, and studies of marshes today will underestimate their response to sea level rise.

Geophysical Research Letters↗
USGS2008

Biomorphodynamics: Physical-biological feedbacks that shape landscapes

Plants and animals affect morphological evolution in many environments. The term "ecogeomorphology" describes studies that address such effects. In this opinion article we use the term "biomorphodynamics" to characterize a subset of ecogeomorphologic studies: those that investigate not only the effects of organisms on physical processes and morphology but also how the biological processes depend on morphology and physical forcing. The two-way coupling precipitates feedbacks, leading to interesting modes of behavior, much like the coupling between flow/sediment transport and morphology leads to rich morphodynamic behaviors. Select examples illustrate how even the basic aspects of some systems cannot be understood without considering biomorphodynamic coupling. Prominent examples include the dynamic interactions between vegetation and flow/sediment transport that can determine river channel patterns and the multifaceted biomorphodynamic feedbacks shaping tidal marshes and channel networks. These examples suggest that the effects of morphology and physical processes on biology tend to operate over the timescale of the evolution of the morphological pattern. Thus, in field studies, which represent a snapshot in the pattern evolution, these effects are often not as obvious as the effects of biology on physical processes. However, numerical modeling indicates that the influences on biology from physical processes can play a key role in shaping landscapes and that even local and temporary vegetation disturbances can steer large-scale, long-term landscape evolution. The prevalence of biomorphodynamic research is burgeoning in recent years, driven by societal need and a confluence of complex systems-inspired modeling approaches in ecology and geomorphology. To make fundamental progress in understanding the dynamics of many landscapes, our community needs to increasingly learn to look for two-way, biomorphodynamic feedbacks and to collect new types of data to support the modeling of such emergent interactions. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.

Water Resources Research↗