During the past century,natural and human modifications of environmental systems have greatly accelerated coastal salt marsh deterioration and shoreline retreat in many regions worldwide. Field investigation,profile analysis,geographical information analysis,and remote sensing were employed in combination to study the effect of sediment on Spartina alterniflora salt marshes of the coast in Jiangsu Province,East China. The results indicated that the propagation of Spartina alterniflora salt marshes was closely related to regional sediment conditions,especially the supply of fine-grained materials. Additionally,because of the dense and high grass in Spartina alterniflora salt marshes,wave energy and tidal currents were baffled and weaker than those of the adjacent,unvegetated mud flats. Fine sediment was hardly resuspended under the low energy conditions in the Spartina alterniflora salt marshes.
Coastal salt marshes represent an important coastal wetland system. In order to tmderstand the differences between boundary layer parameters of vegetated and unvegetated areas, as well as the mechanisms of sediment transport, several electromagnetic current meters （AEM HR, products of Alec Electronics Co. Ltd.） were deployed in coastal wetlands in Quanzhou Bay, China, to measure current velocity. During the low tide phase, the surficial sediment was collected at 10 m intervals. In situ measurements show that the current velocities on the bare flat were much higher than those in the Spartina alterniflora marsh. Current velocity also varied with distance from marsh edge and plant canopy height and diameter. Around 63% of the velocity profiles in the tidal creek can be described by a logarithmic equation. Over the bare flat and Spartina alterniflora marsh, a logarithmic profile almost occurs during the flood tide phase. Sediment analysis shows that mean grain size was 6.7 Ф along the marsh edge, and surface sediments were transported from bare fiat to marsh; the tidal creeks may change this sediment transport pattern. The hydrodynamics at early flood tide and late ebb tide phases determined the net transport direction within the study area.
