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Erin Peck<\/a>, an assistant professor at GSO, traveled to Alaska this summer with GSO master’s student, Emily Hall<\/a>, to study these seasonally thawed, tectonically active marshes. Peck co-led the expedition with Kendall Valentine, an assistant professor from the University of Washington, and Sophia Wensman, a researcher from the Desert Research Institute. Kendall Fontenot, a graduate student from Valentine\u2019s lab, was the fifth member of the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe salt marshes in Southcentral Alaska are scientifically very interesting given the tectonic, glacial, and complex trophic influences,\u201d said Peck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The research team collected sediment cores and associated data across seven sites around Anchorage and the Copper River Delta. While some sites were accessible by foot, others required transport via airboat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe had to be careful about the extreme tide range at some sites, and we didn\u2019t want to cross the mudflats around Anchorage, which can be very dangerous,\u201d said Peck. \u201cThe sediments have a texture that results in people getting stuck in the mud. If you wiggle or thrash around to extricate yourself, you can sink deeper, and it would be very difficult for people to pull you out. Because the tides are so large, people can drown before the first responders arrive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Copper River Delta is one of the largest deltas in North America. Deltas form when fast moving water, such as a river, meets a slower body of water, like the sea. When fresh water, saltwater, and mud mix, a dynamic environment and unique habitats are created. As the mud settles, it traps carbon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the abundance of these high-latitude wetlands, little data has been collected until now, partly because they are difficult to access and the working conditions can be harsh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe sheer size was very impressive, especially in the Copper River Delta,\u201d said Peck. \u201cThe salt marshes are expanding rapidly, which is rare. Most salt marshes in the United States are vulnerable to degradation and drowning under sea level rise and land use change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe sediment in the Copper River Delta contained a lot of iron and it was so anoxic that you could smell it,\u201d she noted. \u201cIt was very dense and heavy\u2014we even found rocks in the marsh. It was amazing to see how close the marshes were to the glaciers and mountains. The sediment from the glaciers was very sticky.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The diversity of vegetation and animals also fascinated Peck and her peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was told there are more than 40 common species of salt marsh vegetation in Alaska,\u201d said Peck. \u201cAlong the Pacific Northwest coast, there are only about 20 and along the East and Gulf coasts there are less than 10.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Copper River Delta is also a productive summer nesting habitat for thousands of waterbirds, including dabbling ducks, mergansers, red-throated loons, a high percentage of the world\u2019s population of dusky Canada geese, and more than 10 percent of the world\u2019s trumpeter swans. Each spring, 80% of the western sandpipers and dunlins in the world migrate through the Copper River Delta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the next year, the cores Peck and Hall collected, some of which were as long as three meters, will be studied in Peck\u2019s Coastal Sediment Dynamics and Biogeochemistry Laboratory using computed tomography (CT) scanning to visualize the sediment layers and gamma detection to record changes in the marsh elevation over time. Organic matter and carbon will also be measured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ll start processing these cores right away to learn more about the different layers and rates of change in the marshes,\u201d said Peck. \u201cWe hope to develop a better understanding of how these salt marshes grow, how they record the history of the area, and how they bury carbon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The field work and subsequent testing in the lab, provides valuable hands-on research experience for Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTraveling to Alaska\u2019s salt marshes to collect samples was an unforgettable experience,\u201d said Hall, who resides in Providence. \u201cThe layers of earth revealed in the sediment cores is a powerful reminder of how vital salt marshes are at recording and preserving recent geological events, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and sea-level changes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GSO researchers are investigating how tectonic activity and human impacts shape salt marsh geomorphology and carbon dynamics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4762,"featured_media":190989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[3117,3114,3116],"class_list":["post-190988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alaska","tag-erin-peck","tag-salt-marsh"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4762"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190990,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190988\/revisions\/190990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2025\/08\/DSC_3849-1024x699.jpeg\")
A unique ecosystem<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Testing samples in the lab<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n