Faunal engineering stimulates landscape-scale accretion in southeastern US salt marshes

Sinéad M Crotty; Daniele Pinton; Alberto Canestrelli; Hallie S Fischman; Collin Ortals; Nicholas R Dahl; Sydney Williams; Tjeerd J Bouma; Christine Angelini

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36444-w

Faunal engineering stimulates landscape-scale accretion in southeastern US salt marshes

Nat Commun. 2023 Feb 16;14(1):881. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-36444-w.

Authors

Sinéad M Crotty^{1

2}, Daniele Pinton³, Alberto Canestrelli³, Hallie S Fischman⁴, Collin Ortals^{4

3}, Nicholas R Dahl⁵, Sydney Williams⁴, Tjeerd J Bouma^{6

7}, Christine Angelini^{4

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, Engineering School for Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment, University of Florida, PO Box 116580, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA. sinead.crotty@yale.edu.
² Carbon Containment Lab, School of the Environment, Yale University, 83 Audubon St., New Haven, CT, 06510, USA. sinead.crotty@yale.edu.
³ Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, School for Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment, University of Florida, PO Box 116580, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
⁴ Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, Engineering School for Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment, University of Florida, PO Box 116580, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
⁵ Carbon Containment Lab, School of the Environment, Yale University, 83 Audubon St., New Haven, CT, 06510, USA.
⁶ Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ) and Utrecht University, 4401, NT Yerseke, The Netherlands.
⁷ Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.115, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Abstract

The fate of coastal ecosystems depends on their ability to keep pace with sea-level rise-yet projections of accretion widely ignore effects of engineering fauna. Here, we quantify effects of the mussel, Geukensia demissa, on southeastern US saltmarsh accretion. Multi-season and -tidal stage surveys, in combination with field experiments, reveal that deposition is 2.8-10.7-times greater on mussel aggregations than any other marsh location. Our Delft-3D-BIVALVES model further predicts that mussels drive substantial changes to both the magnitude (±<0.1 cm·yr^-1) and spatial patterning of accretion at marsh domain scales. We explore the validity of model predictions with a multi-year creekshed mussel manipulation of >200,000 mussels and find that this faunal engineer drives far greater changes to relative marsh accretion rates than predicted (±>0.4 cm·yr^-1). Thus, we highlight an urgent need for empirical, experimental, and modeling work to resolve the importance of faunal engineers in directly and indirectly modifying the persistence of coastal ecosystems globally.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Animals
Ecosystem
Engineering
Mytilidae*
Sea Level Rise
Wetlands*

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.13177100.v4