Salt Marsh Community Monitoring

By Tony Curtis & Joe DeVivo

Monitoring Objectives
 Determine the rate of salt marsh accretion or subsidence.
 Determine the status and trends in soil salinity.
 Determine trends in relative sea level rise
 Determine species composition, cover and height.
 Determine trends in marsh extent

We plan to develop and use standardized multi-agency
monitoring protocol." Tony Curtis

How? Surface Elevation Tables

NPS Photo

 Rod is installed as a survey-grade benchmark

 Changes in the “whole” salt marsh

 Depth to feldspar

 Changes in accretion or deposition rates

 Tied to land and tidal elevation networks

Data Collection

A salt marsh monitoring device.

NPS Photo

Surface Elevation Table is a portable mechanical leveling device for measuring the relative elevation of wetland sediments. 

Percisly measure sediment elevation in wetlands to determine rates of elevation change, particularly relative to sea level rise. 

Status at the Timucuan Preserve