High-magnitude storm events such as Hurricane Sandy are powerful agents of geomorphic change in coastal marshes, potentially altering their surface elevation trajectories. But how do a storm’s impacts vary across a large region spanning a variety of wetland settings and storm exposures and intensities. We determined the short-term impacts of Hurricane Sandy at 223 surface elevation table–marker horizon stations in estuarine marshes located across the northeast region of the United States by comparing post-storm surface elevation change with pre-storm elevation trends. We hypothesized that the storm’s effect on marsh elevation trends would be influenced by position relative to landfall (right or left) and distance from landfall. The structural equation model presented predicts that marshes located to the left of landfall were more likely to experience an elevation gain greater than expected, and this positive deviation from pre-storm elevation trends tended to have a greater magnitude than those experiencing negative deviations (elevation loss), potentially due to greater sediment deposition. The magnitude of negative deviations from elevation change in marshes to the right of landfall was greater than for positive deviations, with a greater effect in marshes within 200 km of landfall, potentially from the extent and magnitude of storm surge. Overall, results provide an integrated picture of how storm characteristics combined with the local wetland setting are important to a storm’s impact on surface elevation, and that the surface elevation response can vary widely among sites across a region impacted by the same storm.

桑迪飓风等高强度风暴事件是沿海沼泽地貌变化的有力推动者，有可能改变其地表高程轨迹。但是，暴风雨的影响在整个湿地环境，暴风雨的暴露程度和强度的大范围内如何变化。通过将风暴后的地面海拔变化与风暴前的海拔变化趋势进行比较，我们确定了飓风桑迪对美国东北部地区河口沼泽中223个地面海拔表-标志地平线台站的短期影响。我们假设风暴对沼泽海拔趋势的影响将受到相对于登陆位置（右或左）和登陆距离的影响。提出的结构方程模型预测，位于登陆左侧的沼泽更有可能经历比预期更大的海拔升高，并且与风暴前海拔趋势的正偏差往往比经历负偏差的海拔更大（海拔损失） ），可能是由于更大的沉积物沉积所致。沼泽向着登陆右侧的海拔变化产生的负偏差的幅度大于正向偏差，对登陆200 km以内的沼泽产生更大的影响，这可能是风暴潮的程度和强度所致。总体而言，结果提供了一个完整的画面，说明风暴特征与当地湿地环境相结合如何对风暴对地表海拔的影响非常重要，