Mangroves and intertidal morphology in Westernport Bay, Victoria, Australia
In: Marine Geology. Elsevier: Amsterdam. ISSN 0025-3227; e-ISSN 1872-6151, meer
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Accretion
Aquatic sciences > Marine sciences > Geology > Marine geology
Earth sciences > Geology > Geomorphology > Coastal morphology
Environmental impact
Sedimentation
Sediments
Water bodies > Inland waters > Wetlands > Swamps > Mangrove swamps
Avicennia marina (Forssk.) Vierh. [WoRMS]
Western Port Bay [Marine Regions]
Marien/Kust |
| Abstract |
Westernport Bay, a marine system produced by Holocene submergence of a sunkland, was initially a mainly sandy embayment, but erosion and dispersal of clay derived from bordering freshwater swamps and weathered basalt cliffs has resulted in the formation of extensive tidal mudflats. The upper part of the intertidal zone consists of a salt marsh terrace fringed seaward by mangroves (Avicennia marina). Field measurements have shown sustained accretion under this mangrove fringe, in contrast with alternations of erosion and accretion on the mudflats to seaward, and the trapping of sediment by mangrove pneumatophore networks has been demonstrated by surveys and simulated experimentally. It is deduced that the mangroves have here shaped the pattern of sedimentation in such a way as to build a depositional terrace at high spring tide level, on which they have been succeeded by salt marsh communities. |
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