Overwash Deposition Stabilizes Backbarrier Marshes as Sea Level Rises: Insights from Experiments Conducted using a Coupled Barrier Island-Marsh Model

We investigate the interactions between barrier islands and backbarrier marshes that determine the island-marsh response to climate change. To this end we couple the morphological-behavior model, GEOMBEST, with a newly-developed marsh-edge progradation component based on an existing model of tidal flat-salt marsh hydrodynamics. We conduct two sets of experiments with the new model to assess 1) the impact of overwash deposition on backbarrier marsh morphology and 2) the impact of backbarrier marsh morphology on rates of island migration. Results indicate that for backbarrier marshes to persist under accelerating RSLR, sufficient sediment must be deposited at the bayside marsh-edge boundary for the marsh to prograde at a rate equal to or greater than the rate of island transgression (i.e., to maintain marsh width). Simulations further indicate that overwash deposition can provide backbarrier marshes with an additional source of sediment that allows maintenance of existing (i.e., a steady state), and creation of new, narrow marsh platforms (~500m wide) within a range of conditions (high rate of RSLR and low fine-grained sediment supply) under which they would otherwise disappear or not exist. This existence of a stable marsh width is supported by remote sensing observations of barrier islands and backbarrier marshes along the eastern shore of Virginia, which show that a significantly high proportion of islands are backed by marshes approximately 500m wide. A second set of experiments demonstrates that the impact of backbarrier marsh platforms on barrier islands is to reduce accommodation space in the backbarrier bay, which decreases the rate of island transgression because less landward migration is necessary to maintain island elevation relative to sea level. These coupled processes indicate that barrier islands and backbarrier marshes are intimately connected such that under conditions of high rates of RSLR and overwash deposition, narrow marsh platforms exist where they otherwise would not, which reduces acceleration in the rate of island transgression. In the face of accelerating RSLR, and increased potential for more intense hurricanes resulting in overwash, it is likely that this coupling will become more important, and that transgressive, overwash-prone barrier islands--backed by narrow marsh platforms--will become more prevalent in the future.