Adding just the right amount of sediment to the surface of a Connecticut salt marsh protects coastlines by promoting rapid plant growth, scientists from the University of Connecticut report in a new study published recently in Environmental Engineering.
Adding just the right amount of sediment to the surface of a Connecticut salt marsh protects coastlines by promoting rapid plant growth, scientists from the University of Connecticut report in a new study published recently in Environmental Engineering.
Adding sediment on top of salt marshes helps them stay above sea level as it continues to rise. Anna Puchkoff and Beth Lawrence from UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources conducted a study on how the addition of sediment could restore salt marshes in Connecticut. For her research, Puchkoff used sediment that was dredged from the Long Island Sound by the nearby Guilford Yacht Club.
“My goal was to also reduce project costs and replicate a real-life restoration scenario where in many cases, you have to work with what you’ve got or what the available resources at hand are,” says Puchkoff, who recently earned a master’s degree from the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at UConn. “This was a core principle in my research, since using dredged material from marinas is common and disposal is costly.”
Instead of transporting the sediment to a dumping site, Puchkoff teamed up with the yacht club to use their sediment to help restore a salt marsh on their property and reduce sediment transportation costs.
Read more at University of Connecticut
Image: UConn researchers working in regional salt marshes (Credit: Anna Puchkoff)
