Marsh Migration and Carbon Burial

This project investigates how rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion into coastal soils enhance carbon sequestration through sulfurization — the chemical bonding of sulfur to organic matter that makes it resistant to degradation. By combining field measurements across salt marsh–upland transitions on the Delmarva Peninsula, laboratory experiments, and reactive transport modeling, the work tests whether marsh migration and increasing sulfate availability represent a previously unrecognized positive feedback on the global carbon cycle.