Why We Do this Work
Salt marshes provide ecological value and services to people by mitigating impacts of coastal storms, filtering pollutants, providing habitat for fish, shellfish, and birds, sequestering carbon, and serving as important areas for recreation and connection to place.
Salt marshes are at risk. Previous development practices and alteration for agricultural and mosquito control practices have degraded marshes over time. They are becoming increasingly threatened by stressors including sea level rise, excess nutrients, sediment limitation, and invasive species. As sea level rises, marshes will continue to experience degradation from more/longer periods of inundation, saturation, and subsidence, which in turn impacts the wildlife and people that depend upon them.
Coordinated action is urgently needed around on-the-ground restoration/adaptation and focused research that informs effective actions to protect salt marshes and their valuable functions from stressors.
Who is the Salt Marsh Working Group?
Since 2018, the SMWG has grown from 20 Massachusetts partners to a multi-state network of over 140 state, federal, tribal, nonprofit, and university scientists and coastal land managers that span Massachusetts, with partners from New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island. Co-led by the UMass Amherst Gloucester Marine Station and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, the SMWG is one of five Mass ECAN Work Groups.
Collective Goals
- Facilitate a coordinated forum between scientists and managers across organizations and regions.
- Share best practices to advance assessment and monitoring for salt marshes and restoration efforts.
- Identify research gaps and priorities to focus collective effort.
- Design collaborative approaches to support critical research and increase salt marsh resilience.
How SMWG Members Contribute
- Participate in quarterly meetings
- Share and learn through lightning talks, forums, and workshops
- Develop products that promote collaboration and focus collective impact
2026 Salt Marsh Science Symposium in partnership with MassMarsh
When: April 2, 2026 (9:30 registration, 10:00-1:00 symposium with networking lunch)
Where: UMass Amherst Charles River Campus, Shaw Hall
Who: Salt marsh researchers, practitioners, and regulators
RSVP here
2025 Salt Marsh Science Symposium
The SMWG, in partnership with the Boston Harbor Ecosystem Network, welcomed 80 salt marsh researchers and practitioners from MA, NH, ME, and RI to discuss new research and adaptation around marsh monitoring metrics and marsh migration:
Salt Marsh Monitoring Metrics
- Overview of salt marsh monitoring – David Burdick, University of New Hampshire
- NAMASTE and salt marsh data tools – Megan Tyrrell, Waquoit Bay NERR; Chris Peter, Great Bay NERR; Grant McKown, University of New Hampshire
- MassMarsh long-term salt marsh monitoring program – Scott Jackson, UMass Amherst
Salt Marsh Migration
- SLAMM model and salt marsh migration potential– Marc Carullo, MA Coastal Zone Management
- Conservation planning for salt marsh migration – Jessica Dietrich, The Nature Conservancy
- Strategic salt marsh migration projects – Wenley Ferguson, Save the Bay (RI)
2023 Workshop: Advancing Collective Action
On October 5, 2023, 40 SMWG members gathered in-person to celebrate the Group’s successes to date. The workshop aimed to build integrative capacity and to outline and position collective actions for the coming year.
Breakout groups discussed the three SMWG Research Priorities to determine how best to advance our most urgent needs. Four themes emerged to activate a collective research agenda and strategic coordination:
Tracking Action Against Research Priorities
We polled the 40 SMWG October 2023 workshop attendees to see how they are individually advancing the SMWG Priority Research needs. The map below shows 20 responses - a snapshot reflecting work taking place to advance collective SMWG goals. (Map produced by SMWG intern, Angel Checo Reynoso)
Defining Focused Research for Resilient Salt Marshes
Throughout 2021, SMWG members worked to identify and narrow down specific topics around salt marsh processes. This resulted in identifying five core issues:
- Sea Level Rise: Impacts on physical structure, ecosystem shifts, functional changes, modeling, management, adaptation
- Hydrology: Historical impacts, tidal restrictions, panne and pool expansion, ditching, restoration, modeling
- Marsh Migration: Processes, modeling, land management, facilitation, conservation
- Sediment Supply: Sediment availability, elevation processes, horizontal/vertical accretion, and loss, dredging
- Nutrients: Impacts, associated stressors (e.g., land use), management.
Our Process
Expert Teams
Five teams, with a broad range of SMWG expertise, were formed for each issue.
Standardized process
Using an agreed-upon, standardized process, teams identified near-term (2021-2026) research needs and data gaps for their respective issue.
Consensus
Upon completion, the five team leads convened to discuss overlap and connections among their respective research priorities and data gaps.
3 Broad Research Priorities
Ultimately, three broad priorities were identified, with more detailed needs for collaboration to effectively manage and increase resilience.
Pappal, A. and K. Kahl. 2022. Gaining Ground: Defining Priority Research for Resilient Salt Marshes. Salt Marsh Working Group, a working group of the Massachusetts Ecosystem Climate Adaptation Network.
