Saltmarsh elevation range

[marissa]

Hi
I am using the Slamm Model for a study area in germany and I have a question concerning the elevation of reg. flooded marsh and irreg. flooded marsh.
I read in your technical documentation, that the upper boundary of reg. flood marsh is the average (Mean high higher water, Mean Tidal level). So you mean the arithmetic mean between mean high higher water and mean tidal level?
You are also saying, that the upper boundary of irreg. flood marsh is the salt boundary. I also had a look in the power point presentation from March 2010 and there is a graph which indicates that the upper boundary of a salt marsh is the mean high water and that the salt boundary is the upper boundary of scrub-shrub or brackish. This confused me a bit. May bee you can help me.
best regards marissa

[Amy Polaczyk]

Hi Marissa,

An interesting paper regarding regularly-flooded marsh that we often refer to is:
McKee and Patrick. 1988. The Relationship of Smooth Cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) to Tidal Datums: A Review. Estuaries 11:143–151.

Generally we do not concern ourselves with the maximum elevation of the wetland categories unless we are using contour-based elevation data and implementing the elevation pre-processor. If you have LiDAR data, the minimum elevations will be the important parameters to pay attention to.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Amy

[marissa]

Hi Amy

Thanks for the article hint. It seem to be interesting
Marissa