Natural levees are typically thought of as forming along river banks. These features form during floods. When floodplains become inundated, coarse material settles out closer to the river channel as flow velocity decreases. This forms a topographic high along the channel bank.
Levees can also form along salt marsh shorelines. Reconstructing accretion rates across marsh platforms, we find that sediment loading disproportionately benefited the marsh edge, building an edge levee. Growth of the level was correlated with reduced interior accretion. For marshes barely keeping pace with rates of sea-level rise, this feedback could result in salt marsh demise. For more information, read the paper, below, which is Josh Himmelstein’s second dissertation chapter.
