Historic evolution of a marsh island: Bloodsworth Island, Maryland
Article
Downs, LL, Nicholls, RJ, Leatherman, SP et al. (1994). Historic evolution of a marsh island: Bloodsworth Island, Maryland
. JOURNAL OF COASTAL RESEARCH, 10(4), 1031-1044.
Downs, LL, Nicholls, RJ, Leatherman, SP et al. (1994). Historic evolution of a marsh island: Bloodsworth Island, Maryland
. JOURNAL OF COASTAL RESEARCH, 10(4), 1031-1044.
High rates of relative sea-level rise in the Chesapeake Bay of about 0.3 m/century has caused rapid land loss of the Bay islands. This study is the first quantitative analysis of both perimeter and interior land loss for one of the large marsh islands - Bloodsworth Island declined by 579 ha, or 26% of the land area in 1849. The land loss can be divided into four geomoprhic types: perimeter land losss, channel widening, channel ponding, and non-channel ponding. Perimeter land loss is largest at 3.0 ha/yr from 1942 to 1992, but the three interior land loss types are also significant, totalling 1.6 ha/yr from 1942 to 1992. Channel ponding and widening were responsible for nearly all interior land loss prior to 1942. In the future, the island appears increasingly vulnerable to interior break-up, particularly given another short-term acceleration of sea-level rise. -from Authors
