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Collection, analysis, and age-dating of sediment cores from Herring River wetlands and other nearby wetlands in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 2015–17

Dates

Publication Date
Time Period
2015-06-18
Time Period
2015-06-19
Time Period
2016-06-28
Time Period
2017-10-27

Citation

O'Keefe Suttles, J.A., Eagle, M.J., Mann, A.G., Wang, F., Tang, J., Roberts, D., Sanks, K., Smith, T.P., and Kroeger, K.D., 2021, Collection, analysis, and age-dating of sediment cores from Herring River wetlands and other nearby wetlands in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 2015–17: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P95RXPHB.

Summary

The Herring River estuary in Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, has been tidally restricted for more than a century by a dike constructed near the mouth of the river. Upstream from the dike, the tidal restriction has caused the conversion of salt marsh wetlands to various other ecosystems including impounded freshwater marshes, flooded shrub land, drained forested upland, and brackish wetlands dominated by Phragmites australis. This estuary is now managed by the National Park Service, which plans to replace the aging dike and restore tidal flow to the estuary. To assist National Park Service land managers with restoration planning, the U.S. Geological Survey collected fourteen sediment cores from different ecosystems within the tidally [...]

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Attached Files

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Data_HerringRiver_Cores.csv 105.93 KB text/csv
HR_wetland_Phragmites.jpg
“Image of a tidally restricted wetland in the Herring River Estuary, Cape Cod, MA”
thumbnail 3.94 MB image/jpeg

Purpose

Sediment cores were collected, age-dated, and their carbon content was measured to calculate vertical accretion and carbon burial rates. Data were collected to facilitate National Park Service restoration planning and provide background data of differences in water level, vegetation types, carbon burial rates, and land-surface elevation between sites.

Additional Information

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DOI https://www.sciencebase.gov/vocab/category/item/identifier doi:10.5066/P95RXPHB

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