The Holocene influence on the future evolution of the Venice Lagoon tidal marshes

The resilience of marsh ecosystems to expected sea-level rise is determined by a complex interplay of organic and inorganic sedimentation dynamics. Marshes have formed over past centuries to millennia and consist of extremely reactive bodies with sediments that can experience high compaction. Here we provide a quantification of the degree to which the past history of a salt marsh can affect its long-term evolution. A dataset of elevation dynamics was established in the Venice Lagoon (Italy) and interpreted using a physics-based model of deposition and large consolidation of newly deposited material. We found that the fate of low-lying tidal landscapes over the next century of accelerating sea-level rise will be highly dependent on compaction of soft, recently deposited soils. Our results imply that a sedimentation rate twice the present rate will be needed to counterbalance the expected sea-level rise.

Coastal flooding protection will change salt-marsh sedimentation dynamics

<p>Coastal wetlands lie at the interface between submerged and emerged environments and therefore represent unique yet delicate ecosystems. Their existence, resulting from complex interactions between hydrodynamics and sediment dynamics, is challenged by increasing rates of sea-level rise, lowered fluvial sediment input as well as an increasing anthropogenic pressure. The future survival of these peculiar morphologies is becoming even more complicated, because of the construction and planning of coastal defence structures designed to protect urban areas from flooding. Important examples are the flood protection systems built to protect New Orleans (USA), the river Scheldt Estuary (The Netherlands) and Venice (Italy). In this context, understanding the physical processes on which coastal marshes are grounded and how engineering measures can alter them is of extreme importance in order to plan conservation interventions.</p><p>To understand marsh sedimentation dynamics in flood-regulated environments, we investigated through field observations and modelling the effect of the storm-surge barrier designed to protect the city of Venice, the so-called Mo.S.E. system, which has in fact become operational since October 2020.</p><p>Sedimentation measurements in different salt marshes of the Venice lagoon carried out in the period October 2018-October 2020 show that more than 70% of yearly sedimentation accumulates during storm-surge conditions, despite their short duration. Moreover, the sedimentation rate displays a highly non-linear increase with marsh inundation intensity, due to the interplay between higher water levels and greater suspended sediment concentration. Barrier operations during storm surges to avoid flooding of urban areas will reduce water levels and marsh inundation. Therefore, we computed sedimentation in a flood-regulated scenario for the same observation period, using the relation we obtained between tidal forcing and sedimentation rate. Our results show that some occasional closures during intense storm surges (70 hours/year on average) suffice to reduce the yearly sedimentation of the same order of magnitude of the relative sea-level rise rate experienced by the Venice lagoon during the last century (2.5 mm/y).</p><p>We conclude that storm-surge barrier operations can dangerously reduce salt-marsh vertical accretion rate, thus challenging wetland survival in face of increasing sea-level rise.</p>

Late Holocene Sedimentation Dynamics in the Lake Ulaan Basin, Southern Mongolia: A History of a Playa Lake

Sedimentation dynamics in the Lake Ulaan basin located in the northern margin of the Govi region, southern Mongolia show high sedimentation rates of 11.8–22.7 cm/ka in the eastern part of the basin and low rates of 3.3–5.8 cm/ka in the western part during the late Holocene. The eastern and western parts of the lake have been strongly influenced by fluvial and aeolian activities since the arid late Holocene. However, fluvial sediment input was more significantly recorded in the eastern part. Aeolian deflation has been prevailing throughout the lake bank recently. Lake Ulaan reached its maximum extent before the early Holocene (Sternberg and Paillou, 2015; Holguin and Sternberg, 2016) with a water depth of ~43 m (Lehmkuhl et al., 2018a). After the early Holocene, Lake Ulaan started to decrease its area, and the drop of the lake level intensified since the middle Holocene. In the late Holocene, the лйоупы western and eastern parts were initially exposed to wind deflation at 2.7–3.2 cal. ka BP and the aerial exposition continued at 0.6–1.3 cal. ka BP. In the Anthropocene, Lake Ulaan has rapidly shifted into a playa lake condition during the last five to six decades, and it has become an open-source area of dust generation blown out by the westerly winds.

Bacteria hinders particle sedimentation

Sedimentation in active fluids has come into focus due to the ubiquity of swimming micro-organisms in natural and industrial processes. Here, we investigate sedimentation dynamics of passive particles in a...

Shales of Palaeo-Mesoproterozoic Vindhyan Basin, central India: insight into sedimentation dynamics of Proterozoic shelf

The Vindhyan Supergroup represents the largest Proterozoic sedimentary basin fill in the Indian shield. In addition to some significant palaeobiological discoveries, the sedimentary sequence of the Vindhyan, particularly its argillaceous intervals, holds crucial information for our understanding of sedimentation dynamics in Proterozoic clastic shelves. Here we attempt an extensive, although not exhaustive, review of the physical characteristics of six argillaceous (shale) intervals (Arangi, Koldaha, Rampur, Bijaygarh, Rewa and Sirbu shale) from the Son valley sector, Vindhyan Basin, augmented with new observations to unravel the status of current understanding in terms of palaeo-flow dynamics, shelf sedimentation processes and dispersal pattern, depositional cyclicity and basinal tectonics. The sedimentary attributes of Vindhyan shales reveal their deposition largely in relative bathymetry fluctuating from distal shoreface or inner shelf (near to fair-weather wave base) to distal shelf below storm wave base. More often than not, the Vindhyan shelf was storm-infested and the operation of both storm-generated return flow and Coriolis-force-guided geostrophic currents are documented from different stratigraphic intervals of argillaceous successions. The thick arenaceous intervals interrupting the deposits of the Koldaha, Rewa and Sirbu shales at multiple stratigraphic levels indicate the presence of a fan delta and braided fluvial system during intermittent regressive stands of sea level or event deposition during a sea-level highstand, respectively. Based on facies pattern and flow vectors, a rift-related half-graben model is inferred for Arangi and Koldaha shale and a low-gradient stable-shelf model with well-defined energy gradient is proposed for successions from Rampur shale onwards.

Late Quaternary sedimentation dynamics in the Beenchime-Salaatinsky Crater, Northern Yakutia

The Beenchime-Salaatinsky Crater (BSC) is located west of the Olenyok River in Northern Yakutia, ~ 260 km south-west of Tiksi and the Lena Delta. The age and origin (volcanic versus meteoritic) of this crater is poorly understood. The key scientific interest in re-visiting the BSC is the reappraisal of the Quaternary sedimentation dynamics for a better understanding of the sediment history and thickness in the basin. This aides for an assessment, if the site is prospective for a deeper drilling of a Quaternary (or Cenozoic) sediment archive. Soil pits and auger cores from slopes and lowland terrain in the basin were sampled and studied to infer sediment ages and transport dynamics. This also included a thermokarst lake placed in the centre of the basin. Studied properties include grain-size distribution, organic carbon and nitrogen contents (TOC and TN), heavy mineral compositions, δ13C of organic carbon, 14C ages from sediment, δ18O and δD from ground ice and waters, and lake bathymetry from GPR profiling, in addition. We conclude that the crater floor in the BSC is underlain by fluvial/alluvial sediments from the MIS 3 period. Thermokarst lake formation took place during the Holocene Thermal Maximum between 7600 and 6100 cal yr BP. The lake has been shrinking hereafter. Fluvial/alluvial sedimentation along the drainage pattern was active again between 5700 to 1500 cal yr BP, and it was flanked by the accumulation of peaty and organic-rich sediments and the formation of ice-wedge polygons.