The survival of salt marshes depends on their ability to maintain vertical elevation and areal extent. In the lateral direction, marsh edges can expand laterally or undergo edge erosion through mass failure or continuous particle erosion through waves and tidal processes. In this study, we evaluate possible relationships between marsh shoreline type within the Great Marsh in Massachusetts and major geotechnical parameters along the marsh edge. We also explore if wave energy, using fetch as a proxy, affects the presence, type, and distribution of shoreline type. We mapped and classified the marsh into four categories: slumping, vertical and abrading, stable/accretionary, and bedrock or gravel, and sampled the marsh edge at 98 sites. Using over 450 measurements, we present typical ranges of values at these marsh edges for bulk density (0.10–1.43 g/cm³), organic content (0.99–55.07%), belowground biomass (0.11–36.76%), and shear strength (4.04–136.49 kPa at 20 cm into the marsh bank, and 4.04–131.03 kPa at 40 cm into the bank). We show that there are no significant differences in fetch or geotechnical properties for the different marsh edge classes. Thus, none of these parameters explain or correlate with edge erosion, even though the majority of previous edge erosion studies focus on these parameters as determinants of edge erosion. We further emphasize the heterogeneity of the marsh, as edge erosion can occur in highly exposed or sheltered areas alike with no trends in geotechnical properties, and that complex interactions between parameters not generally studied may be responsible for edge erosion.

盐沼的生存取决于它们维持垂直海拔和面积范围的能力。在横向方向上，沼泽边缘可能横向扩展，或者由于质量破坏而遭受边缘侵蚀，或者由于波浪和潮汐过程而遭受连续的颗粒侵蚀。在这项研究中，我们评估了马萨诸塞州大沼泽内的沼泽海岸线类型与沿沼泽边缘的主要岩土参数之间的可能关系。我们还将探讨使用提取作为代理的波浪能是否会影响海岸线类型的存在，类型和分布。我们将沼泽划分为四个类别：塌陷，垂直和磨损，稳定/增生以及基岩或砾石，并在98个地点采样了沼泽边缘。使用450多次测量，我们给出了这些沼泽边缘的典型堆积密度值范围（0.10–1.43 g / cm³），有机物含量（0.99-55.07％），地下生物量（0.11-36.76％）和剪切强度（在沼泽岸20厘米处为4.04–136.49 kPa，在沼泽40厘米处为4.04–131.03 kPa）。我们表明，对于不同的沼泽边缘类别，取矿或岩土属性没有显着差异。因此，尽管先前的大多数边缘腐蚀研究都将这些参数作为边缘腐蚀的决定因素，但这些参数都无法解释或与边缘腐蚀相关。我们进一步强调了沼泽的异质性，因为边缘侵蚀可能发生在高度裸露或庇护的区域中，而岩土特性没有任何趋势，并且通常未研究的参数之间的复杂相互作用可能是边缘侵蚀的原因。