Pannozzo, Natascia 
ORCID: 0000-0002-8082-9251
(2023)
Quantifying salt marsh resilience to anthropogenic disturbance and climate change: an integrated field and numerical investigation.
PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.
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Abstract
Salt marshes are significant ecosystems whose survival largely depends upon the equilibrium between sea-level variations and sediment availability. With changing climate and increasing human disturbance influencing sediment transport within intertidal systems, it is unclear whether salt marshes will be able to retain their resilience. This study aims to i) investigate salt marsh resilience to embankment construction and changes in sea-level and storm activity and ii) develop a new luminescence-based approach, which is independent of stratigraphy and sediment composition, for the detection of storm activity across intertidal environments. The Ribble Estuary, North-West England, was used as a test case and the response of the system to embankment construction, sea-level rise and storm activity was investigated using an integration of numerical modelling and field analyses (paleoenvironmental reconstruction and monitoring). Results showed that the construction of embankments along an estuary shoreline can promote ebb dominance in the intertidal system and intensify sediment export, threatening marsh accretion, although this is negligible in a system characterised by high rates of marine sediment supply. Sea-level rise can also threaten estuary and marsh stability by promoting ebb dominance and triggering sediment export, but an increase in storm intensity has the potential to counteract the decrease in sediment budget caused by sea-level rise by promoting flood dominance and triggering sediment import. However, while storms enhance salt marsh vertical accretion, especially benefitting the marsh interior, the majority of the storm sediment supplied to the salt marsh platform are generated by an increase in erosion and resuspension of mudflat and tidal creek sediments, with implications for marsh lateral retreat. Results also demonstrated that luminescence signals of K-feldspar can diagnose differential modes of deposition across intertidal settings and can, therefore, successfully detect storm activity across intertidal environments. Overall, this study offers new perspectives and tools that can benefit both coastal research development and coastal management.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Environmental Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 30 Aug 2023 09:09 |
| Last Modified: | 30 Aug 2023 09:10 |
| DOI: | 10.17638/03172167 |
| Supervisors: |
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| URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3172167 |
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