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Surface elevation change in natural and re-created intertidal habitats, eastern England, UK, with particular reference to Freiston Shore

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Abstract

Quantification of processes contributing to overall surface elevation change is critical to the accurate assessment of saltmarsh sedimentary status, particularly when predicting system stability in relation to accelerated sea level rise. Rates of short-term (up to 5.5 years) surface elevation change and accretion on a temperate saltmarsh were measured at an open coast managed realignment (habitat creation) trial, and the surrounding intertidal zone using surface elevation table–marker horizon (accretion plate) methodologies. Mean surface elevation changes on vegetated saltmarsh control sites, at some distance from the hydrodynamic disturbance of breaches in a former sea defence line, showed rates of change compatible with marsh surface dynamics seen elsewhere in the region, exceeding rates of regional relative sea-level rise. Within the managed realignment, sites close to the breaches showed exceptionally high rates of both accretion and surface elevation change, most likely as a result of high localized sediment supply from breach and channel enlargement and the presence of surfaces left unnaturally low in the tidal frame. Positive surface elevation change on the landward side of the breaches reached >30.4 mm a−1, up to one hundred times greater than rates of surface elevation change at locations 1 km from the breach entrances. Shallow sub-surface processes, or ‘surface subsidence’, was an important process on natural marshes outside the managed realignment but not seen within the site, due to the consolidated nature of the underlying substrate. The Freiston Shore managed realignment site shows remarkably similar time variation in mean elevation to that of the longer record from the Tollesbury managed realignment site, Blackwater estuary, Essex coast, UK. It is not clear how long it will take for re-created intertidal habitats at both Freiston Shore and Tollesbury to approach an ‘equilibrium’ elevation within the tidal frame but modelling suggests that in natural wetlands on the coast of eastern England this process takes at least 150 years.

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Acknowledgments

Accretion plate and SET data collection was funded from 2002 to 2006 by the UK Environment Agency, the UK Government Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and CEH. Thanks are extended to S. Boreham, C. Rolfe, A. Hayes and A. Balbo (all University of Cambridge, UK) for assistance with SET monitoring. D.A. Friess was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NER/S/A/2005/13271). We thank M. Lewis, Governor of Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMP) at North Sea Camp open prison, and E. Hewitt, Head of Works Services, for arranging assistance with the installation of accretion plates and marker posts in the realignment site; R. Appleby (foreman) and an anonymous inmate for helping S. L. Brown to install the accretion plates in spring 2002. Philip Stickler and David Watson, Cartographic Unit, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge greatly assisted with the production of figures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cambridge Coastal Research Unit, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, UK

    T. Spencer, D. A. Friess & I. Möller

  2. Singapore-Delft Water Alliance, National University of Singapore, Engineering Drive 2, Singapore, 117546, Singapore

    D. A. Friess

  3. Coastlife, Lynden, Marshall Row, Swanage, BH19 2AF, UK

    S. L. Brown

  4. NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Environment Centre Wales, Deniol Road, Bangor, LL57 2UP, UK

    R. A. Garbutt

  5. Coastal and Estuarine Research Unit, UCL Department of Geography, University College London, Pearson Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    J. R. French

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Correspondence to T. Spencer.

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Spencer, T., Friess, D.A., Möller, I. et al. Surface elevation change in natural and re-created intertidal habitats, eastern England, UK, with particular reference to Freiston Shore. Wetlands Ecol Manage 20, 9–33 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-011-9238-y

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