Tidal frequencies and quasiperiodic subsurface water level variations
dominate redox dynamics in a salt marsh system
Abstract
Salt marshes are hotspots of nutrient processing en route to sensitive
coastal environments. While our understanding of these systems has
improved over the years, we still have limited knowledge of the
spatiotemporal variability of critical biogeochemical processes within
salt marshes. Sea-level rise will continue to force change on salt marsh
functioning, highlighting the urgency of filling this knowledge gap. Our
study was conducted in a central California estuary experiencing
extensive marsh drowning and relative sea-level rise, making it a model
system for such an investigation. Here we instrumented three marsh
positions with different degrees of inundation (6.7%, 8.9%, and 11.2%
of the time for the upper, middle, and lower marsh positions,
respectively), providing locations with varied geochemical
characteristics and hydrological interaction at the site. We
continuously monitored redox potential (Eh) at depths of 0.1, 0.3, and
0.5 m, subsurface water levels (WL), and temperature at each marsh
position to understand how drivers of subsurface biogeochemical
processes fluctuate across tidal cycles, using wavelet analyses to
explain the interactions between Eh and WL. We found that tidal forcing
significantly affects biogeochemical processes by imparting controls on
Eh variability, likely driving subsurface hydro-biogeochemistry of the
salt marsh. Wavelet coherence showed that the Eh-WL relationship is
non-linear, and their lead-lag relationship is variable. We found that
precipitation events perturb Eh at depth over timescales of hours, even
though WL show relatively minimal change during events. This work
highlights the importance of high-frequency measurements, such as Eh, to
help explain factors that govern subsurface geochemistry and
hydrological processes in salt marshes.