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Collection, Analysis, and Age-Dating of Sediment Cores from Salt Marshes on the South Shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, From 2013 Through 2014

Metadata Updated: September 24, 2025

The accretion history of fringing microtidal salt marshes located on the south shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was reconstructed from sediment cores collected in low and high marsh vegetation zones. The location of these marshes within protected embayments and the absence of large rivers on Cape Cod result in minimal sediment supply and a dominance of organic matter contribution to sediment peat. Age models based on 210-lead and 137-cesium were constructed to evaluate how vertical accretion and carbon burial rates have changed over the past century. The continuous rate of supply age model was used to age date 11 cores (10 low marsh and 1 high marsh) across four salt marshes. Both vertical accretion rates and carbon burial increased from 1900 to the years of collection, 2013 and 2014. Elevation of the marsh surface was measured to evaluate where the marsh falls within the current tidal frame. The historic marsh surface elevation was then reconstructed from the calculated age of each depth interval and its elevation, assuming that elevations within this shallow zone (less than 30 centimeters) have been preserved for the past century.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 24, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 24, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5a748e35e4b00f54eb19f96c
Data Last Modified 2020-08-07T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 0ec79e98-0e95-49f1-aa9e-eb01493cf232
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -70.556945801557, 41.543205912373, -70.496520996872, 41.584306748081
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 70fed2a04dca65560f0698edf300869792276144db4e866abcea8c0e81e5d3f0
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -70.556945801557, 41.543205912373, -70.556945801557, 41.584306748081, -70.496520996872, 41.584306748081, -70.496520996872, 41.543205912373, -70.556945801557, 41.543205912373}

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