salt-marsh

Assessing spatial distributions and vulnerability of stored soil carbon in St. Jones and Blackbird Marshes

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Delaware is home to extensive networks of tidal marshes, which provide an array of critical ecosystem services including carbon sequestration. These marshes accumulate carbon due to their relatively high plant productivity and relatively low rates of litter decomposition.

Morphology and Tidal Inundation of Tidal Wetlands in the Delaware Estuary

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An expanse of tidal wetlands fringes the Delaware Estuary and provides Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey with abundant ecosystem services including habitat for indigenous and migrating plants and wildlife, biogeochemical cycling of nutrients, preserving water quality, flood hazard mitigation

Creation of Improved Accuracy LiDAR-Based Digital Elevation Models for the St. Jones River and Blackbird Creek Watersheds

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In tidal wetlands, the high density of vegetation cover inhibits penetration of LiDAR pulses through the vegetation to the ground surface and low vegetation heights inhibit classification of ground point elevations. This project identities and corrects for biases found in the St. Jones and Blackbird Reserves using GPS RTK surveying and statistical analysis.

Beatrice O'Hara of DGS presented a poster

Date

Beatrice O'Hara of Delaware Geological Survey presented a poster titled "Sediment Carbon Stock, Accumulation Rates and Potential Erosion-Induced Carbon Emissions in the Delaware Bay Tidal Salt Marshes" at "The Earth's Carbon Cycle in the 21st Century: Climate, Ecosystems, and Energy," held April

RI81 Characterization of Tidal Wetland Inundation in the Murderkill Estuary

A parameterization of tidal marsh inundation was developed for the 1,200 hectares of tidal marsh along the 12-km reach of the tidal Murderkill River between Frederica and Bowers Beach in Kent County, Delaware. A parsimonious modeling approach was used that bridges the gap between the simple and often used “bathtub model” (instantaneous inundation based on tides in Delaware Bay), and the more complex modeling of shallow overland that results in the wetting and drying of tidal marshes.

UD hosts first-ever Geospatial Research Day

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The University of Delaware's first Geospatial Research Day took place in the Trabant University Center on Thursday, Nov. 19. The free event highlighted the geospatial research being conducted at the University of Delaware and the ways in which UD community members are using geospatial technology.

Characterization of Tidal Wetland Inundation in the Murderkill River Estuary

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The project supports work by the Kent County Levy Court (Kent County) to evaluate the nutrient TMDLS for the tidal portion of the Murderkill River. The project will contribute to a more robust parameterization of river-marsh interaction in the water-quality model that is being developed for the Murderkill River by Kent County. The purpose of the project is to characterize the spatial and temporal inundation of a salt marsh in the Murderkill River Estuary and to determine the feasibility of using heat as a tracer of flow to characterize inundation of other marshes in the estuary.