Coastal Resilience Webinar Series
27 September 2024, 14.00 pm CEST
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Speaker
Loreta Cornacchia, researcher at Deltares (Marine and Coastal Systems Unit, Dept. of Data Science and Water Quality), Delft, The Netherlands

Abstract
Many ecosystems, often heavily modified by humans, face the pressing challenge of adapting to climate change. Coastal ecosystems, such as salt marshes and intertidal flats, are at risk of drowning if they cannot keep pace with sea-level rise. We developed a model to investigate how the emergence of complex creek networks during early salt marsh development affects the ability of marsh ecosystems to accumulate sediment, thereby compensating for sea-level rise. This model is based on a scale-dependent feedback relation between vegetation growth and hydrodynamics, as plants locally block water flow, which then diverts to their surroundings. This self-organization process drives the emergence of a complex creek network of ever smaller creeks nested within larger ones. I will present our research on two applications of this salt marsh model, called SFERE (Scale-dependent Feedback Recursion). First, we assessed the relative importance of vegetation characteristics and creek network complexity for marsh sediment accumulation, which is crucial for resilience. Second, we applied the model to 14 restored coastal wetlands, to study whether they can be designed in such a way as to improve their adaptive capacity to sea-level rise. Our findings suggest that if a more natural organization is followed when designing climate-proof coastal ecosystems, they are more resilient to climate change.