Who We Are
Are you interested in how marshes or tidal wetlands are performing through changing environmental conditions, particularly sea level rise? The Surface Elevation Table Working Group (SET WG) is a group of marsh ecologists throughout the Chesapeake Bay region who perform long-term monitoring at marsh sites. The group has been meeting since 2015 to pool site-specific data to assess regional trends.
The SET WG meet regularly to exchange information, work collaborative on regional synthesis, and share findings or draw attention to marsh issues with broader audiences.
Working group partners include:
- Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve Maryland
- Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve Virginia
- Maryland Coastal Bays Program
- National Park Service
- Rice Rivers Center, Virginia Commonwealth University
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
- University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
- US Fish and Wildlife Service
- US Geological Survey
- Virginia Coastal Reserve Long-Term Ecological Reserve
Contact Taryn Sudol at Sudol@mdsg.umd.edu to learn more about participating partners and sites.
Webinars
On May 7, 2019, the CBSSC, in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserves in Virginia and Maryland, presented a “SET 101” introductory webinar to review why we use Surface Elevation Tables (SET) to monitor marsh elevation change, and how to install, measure, and use SET data.
Visit our source material: The surface elevation table and marker horizon technique: A protocol for monitoring wetland elevation dynamics by James C. Lynch, Philippe Hensel, and Donald R. Cahoon
Resources
The Surface Elevation Table Working Group is excited to share products we created on ways to better understand and track marsh response to changing environmental conditions.
Conceptual Modeling Effort of Marsh Accretion Rates
In fall 2021, the Surface Elevation Table Working Group created a conceptual model to describe the environmental variables that influence accretion rates in tidal wetlands. See the model and the data availability for these variables in our report.
SET Installation Checklist
Use this handy checklist for SET Installation from the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Region 5. This is an informal Standard Operating Procedure and not an official FWS protocol, but it does include safety gear and provides step-by-step photos for installation. It should be used as supplemental information and is not guaranteed to cover all aspects of SET installation and safety needs at a given site.