A map of the target area in Duck Harbor, courtesy of the Center for Coastal Studies
WELLFLEET – The Center for Coastal Studies has announced that in light of recent flooding, geologists will be conducting surveys in Wellfleet’s Duck Harbor to take advantage of a rare opportunity to study tidal marsh restoration.
According to Center officials, a series of saltwater overwash events that removed the area’s vegetation are unusual in the lack of sand and sediment deposits which would typically accumulate after such events.
The anomaly, observed since January of 2021, has led Center scientists to theorize that the gravel-rich composition of the area is preventing sediment accumulation within the harbor, which has gone through numerous compositional changes over the last century in relation to the wider Herring River floodplain in which it resides.
“It’s a golden opportunity to get data to study the effects of overwashes on coastal vegetation,” said Mark Borelli, Director of the Center’s Seafloor Mapping Program.
“It’s like watching a landslide in slow motion. We get to slow down nature and watch it happen.”
“By surveying formerly vegetated areas in Duck Harbor, we’re gaining a better idea of what will happen on the Herring River if and when vegetation is removed,” said Borelli.
These sentiments were echoed by Katie Castagno, Director of the Center’s Land-Sea Interaction Program, whose team has assembled over 200 sediment samples from the site.
Castagno believes the findings could contain valuable information in the ongoing, multimillion-dollar effort to restore the Herring River.
“We see what’s happening in Duck Harbor as an analog to what’s going to happen in the Herring River,” said Castagno.
“We really want more salt marsh grasses,” she said, and the insights gained in the harbor could aid in the research to help achieve it.
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