Tidal sedimentology - coastal stability, carbon storage

​Tidal flats and coastal wetlands serve as critical defences against coastal erosion, vital nursery grounds for organisms, and significant carbon sinks, with the capacity to store ten times more carbon than tropical rainforests. However, our understanding of sedimentation in modern tidal environments remains limited, leading to uncertainties about the long-term carbon storage potential and resilience of salt marshes and tidal flats to environmental changes.

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Carbon storage depends on sedimentation rate. Recent research in Korea (K. Choi) highlights a key issue: while short-term sedimentation rates in tidal flats are high (e.g., tidal rhythmites), seasonal events such as monsoons erode the sediment and the stored carbon, resulting in low long-term carbon retention. This work aims to better constrain sedimentation processes to improve the accuracy of models predicting the carbon storage capacity of tidal environments.

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I also investigate how salt-tolerant plants, such as those in salt marshes and coastal peat domes, enhance coastal stability and respond to sea level rise. Vegetated tidal marshes are more resilient to rising sea level than tidal flats because plants trap and baffle sediment, allowing these environments to build vertically. However, if sedimentation rates are low, even resilient vegetated systems can struggle to keep up with sea level rise, raising critical questions about their future. I am exploring how tidal systems behaved before land plants evolved to gain insights into how coastlines might respond to environmental changes in the absence of stabilizing vegetation.