[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-450220-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-450220-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","episodic-salinity-management-to-counter-climate-change-effects-on-tidal-brackish-and-fresh-wetlands","Episodic Salinity Management to Counter Climate Change Effects on Tidal Brackish and Fresh Wetlands","","Brackish and freshwater tidal marshes can accrete vertically during sea level rise, but drought and climate-driven salinity intrusion undermine this capacity and threaten wetland resilience. The study applies episodic salinity management using purchased augmented freshwater for two modest tracts in southeast Texas, where hydrologic modifications and drought endanger resilience and the mottled duck. A transferable, spatially explicit assessment framework links four salinity objectives to zonal plant communities and brood-rearing needs. Calibrated daily hydrologic–salinity modeling compares severe drought and freshwater augmentation scenarios, showing benefits depend on delivery rate, duration, and management approach, with feedback strategies improving benefit-to-water ratios while requiring additional monitoring costs. Most augmentation approaches strongly benefit ducks and vegetation productivity versus severe drought, though parts of a fragile brackish zone remain at risk, indicating complementary restoration needs.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/episodic-salinity-management-to-counter-climate-change-effects-on-tidal-brackish-and-fresh-wetlands/450220/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/episodic-salinity-management-to-counter-climate-change-effects-on-tidal-brackish-and-fresh-wetlands/450220.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Asher","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-05","2026-09-30",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why does episodic salinity management matter for tidal brackish and freshwater wetlands?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Sea level rise can be offset by vertical accretion, but drought and climate-driven salinity intrusion threaten marsh resilience and reduce biological productivity. Episodic salinity management aims to moderate salinity to support marsh function under worsening conditions.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How was the study’s assessment methodology designed?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The work developed a transferable, spatially explicit methodology to evaluate biophysical benefits across heterogeneous wetlands. Four salinity objectives reflect the wetland’s zonal plant geography and mottled duck brood-rearing needs.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What factors determine whether freshwater augmentation provides benefits?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Benefits were sensitive to the management approach as well as freshwater delivery rates and the duration of augmentation. Fixed application rates could push salinities to suboptimal ranges and waste purchased water, while feedback scenarios improved the benefit-to-delivered-water ratio but increased monitoring and management costs.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},450220,1790764362,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},687197207639,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Episodic Salinity Management to Counter Climate Change Effects on Tidal Brackish and Fresh Wetlands  \nNorman D. Johns 1,6 ● Yushi Wang2,7 ● Eric. D. White2,8 ● Kyle Garmany3,9 ● Rusty A. Feagin4 ● George. J. Guillen5  \nReceived: 17 September 2025 / Accepted: 18 December 2025 / Published online: 6 January 2026 © The Author(s) 2026  \nAbstract  \nThe capacity of brackish and freshwater tidal marshes to accrete vertically in response to sea level rise is threatened where drought and salinity intrusion are being amplified by climate change. Episodic salinity management with purchased augmented freshwater is an option for two modest-sized tracts in southeast Texas, where drought and hydrologic modifications threaten wetland resiliency and the Mottled Duck. We developed a transferable methodology to assess biophysical benefits in a spatially explicit manner for these heterogeneous wetlands. Four salinity objectives reflected zonal geography of the wetland plant communities and Mottled Duck brood-rearing needs. A calibrated daily wetlands hydrologicsalinity model contrasted scenarios of severe drought with those of freshwater augmentation. The volume of freshwater available, up to 12 .33 M m3 per year, could be effective at moderating salinity over significant wetland areas, but benefits were sensitive to management approach, as well as delivery rates and duration of augmentation. Additionally, fixed freshwater application rates could depress salinities to suboptimal ranges and waste a purchased resource. Feedback scenarios based on in-marsh salinity conditions elevated the ratio of benefits to delivered water volumes but would entail additional monitoring and management cost. Compared to the extremely deleterious conditions of severe drought, most freshwater augmentation approaches would greatly benefit the Mottled Duck and the productivity of the wetland vegetation within the tracts. However, portions of a fragile brackish zone dominated by Spartina patens would remain at risk from elevated salinity, suggesting a need for complementary restoration actions.  \nKeywords Wetlands ● Resilience ● Climate change ● Drought ● Salinity ● Intrusion ● Assessment  \nIntroduction  \nCoastal wetlands provide many ecological and environmental service benefits (Barbier et al. 2011; Boesch and  \n* Norman D. Johns [ndjohns.snw.research@gmail.com](ndjohns.snw.research@gmail.com)  \n1 The National Wildlife Federation, Austin, TX, USA  \n2 The Water Institute of the Gulf, Baton Rouge, LA, USA  \n3 The Nature Conservancy, San Antonio, TX, USA  \n4 Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA  \n5 The University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston, TX, USA  \n6 Present address: California Department of Water Resources, Sacramento, CA, USA  \n7 Present address: Arcadis, San Francisco, CA, USA  \n8 Present address: The Louisiana Coastal Protection Authority, Baton Rouge, LA, USA  \n9 Present address: Texas Water Trade, Austin, TX, USA  \nTurner 1984) including sequestration of significant atmospheric carbon (Pendleton et al. 2012) . While major historical wetlands loss resulted from hydrologic alterations (Dahl 2011), climate change presents new threats from accelerated sea level rise (Alizad et al. 2018; Craft et al. 2009) and significant alterations in meteorology (Colombano et al. 2021), including drought frequency and/or duration (Lee et al. 2025) .  \nDrought diminished river and stream freshwater discharge, acting with other anthropogenic stressors, is increasing episodic salinity intrusion, the upstream movement of saline water, into estuarine and deltaic systems and associated wetlands in many locations worldwide (e.g., Herbert et al. 2015; Bellafiore et al. 2021; Xia et al. 2021 ; Wullems et al. 2023; Miller and Hiatt 2024) . Under future climate conditions, drought severity is projected to increase and act synergistically with sea level rise to exacerbate intrusion of salinity into many of the world’s mid-latitude estuarine system","cbCaiqxdRBgt8ydn","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqxdRBgt8ydn","pdf",5875120,18,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Coastal wetlands and ecological services\n## Drought-driven episodic salinity intrusion\n## Effects of elevated salinity on plant productivity and soil processes\n## Rationale for episodic salinity management","[{\"question\":\"Why does episodic salinity management matter for tidal brackish and freshwater wetlands?\",\"answer\":\"Sea level rise can be offset by vertical accretion, but drought and climate-driven salinity intrusion threaten marsh resilience and reduce biological productivity. Episodic salinity management aims to moderate salinity to support marsh function under worsening conditions.\"},{\"question\":\"How was the study’s assessment methodology designed?\",\"answer\":\"The work developed a transferable, spatially explicit methodology to evaluate biophysical benefits across heterogeneous wetlands. Four salinity objectives reflect the wetland’s zonal plant geography and mottled duck brood-rearing needs.\"},{\"question\":\"What factors determine whether freshwater augmentation provides benefits?\",\"answer\":\"Benefits were sensitive to the management approach as well as freshwater delivery rates and the duration of augmentation. Fixed application rates could push salinities to suboptimal ranges and waste purchased water, while feedback scenarios improved the benefit-to-delivered-water ratio but increased monitoring and management costs.\"}]","Episodic Salinity Management to Counter Climate Change Effects on Tidal Brackish and Fresh Wetlands | PDF",1790732494,45]