NAMASTE: A National Synthesis of Tidal Marshes

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Sea level rise and climate change present major threats to tidal marshes nationwide. To track and understand these impacts, the National Marsh Synthesis Team (NAMASTE) has synthesized plant community and sediment accretion data at 85 marshes across 17 coastal states within 20 National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs). Tidal marsh monitoring in the NERRs began nationwide over 10 years ago, allowing NAMASTE the unique opportunity to conduct a first of its kind analysis on a national scale using data collected through a standardized monitoring program. Project goals included: 1) providing insight on how climate change is affecting marshes, both at the national-level and Reserve-level; 2) creating automated tools based in R for data analysis and visualization; and 3) producing science translation products to support management and policy around coastal marshes.

To reach these goals, NAMASTE employed several analytical techniques as well as a collaborative approach engaging…