Data underlying the publication: "Salt marshes for nature-based flood defense: sediment type, drainage, and vegetation drive the development of strong sediment beds"

We aimed to determine how fast sediment strength develops in marshes restored or created for nature-based flood defense. Therefore, this study investigated how 1) sediment type, 2) tidal drainage depth and duration, and 3) pioneer vegetation species drive the development rate of sediment strength. A controlled experiment was set up with pots filled with two sediment types, which were either left bare or planted with Spartina anglica or Scirpus maritimus, two dominant salt marsh pioneers in NW Europe. All treatments were subjected to four different tidal regimes with different tidal drainage depth and duration. After the growing season of 2021 (October) and before and after the growing season of 2022 (April and October, respectively), sediment strength proxies (i.e., compaction, penetration resistance, bulk density, and shear strength) and vegetation variables (i.e., above- and belowground biomass) were measured in five pots per treatment. This dataset contains all data of these variables at the three moments in time.

本研究旨在探明以基于自然的防洪措施（nature-based flood defense）为目标修复或营建的滨海盐沼中，沉积物强度的发育速率。为此，本研究探究了三类因素对沉积物强度发育速率的调控作用：1）沉积物类型；2）潮汐排水深度与持续时长；3）先锋植被物种。本研究设置受控盆栽实验：实验基质包含两种沉积物类型，每类沉积物对应的盆栽分别设置裸地对照、种植英国米草（Spartina anglica）、种植滨海藨草（Scirpus maritimus）三种处理，后两者为西欧滨海盐沼的两种优势先锋物种。所有处理组均接受四种不同潮汐排水深度与持续时长的潮汐节律（tidal regimes）处理。分别于2021年生长季结束后（10月），以及2022年生长季前后（对应为4月与10月）这三个采样时刻，对每个处理组的5盆盆栽开展测定，获取沉积物强度替代指标（sediment strength proxies，包括压实度、贯入阻力、容重与抗剪强度）以及植被变量（包括地上生物量与地下生物量）。本数据集包含上述三个采样时刻的全部相关变量数据。