Database of Sediment Mass Accumulation for Coastal Marshes of Northeastern United States from Sediment Trap Deployments during 2020 and 2021

A critical factor controlling marsh survival and adaptability to rising sea level is an adequate supply of sediment for supporting upward growth of marshes, yet sediment availability and the factors that control its delivery to marshes remain poorly constrained. This dataset includes the results of sediment trap deployments and accompanying water level recordings from 9 coastal salt marshes in the northeastern United States. Sediment traps were deployed seasonally, with individual spring, summer, and fall deployment periods over the course of 2020-2021. The distribution of study sites spans differences in tidal range, wave climate, sea surface temperature, and assemblages of marine organisms. Additionally, these sites are of variable proximity to diverse deposits of terminal moraine, till, sandy outwash, glaciolacustrine, and glaciomarine sediments and differ in their proximity to major river systems. Six of the studied marshes are back-barrier marshes with relatively small upland drainage basins less than a few hundred km^2, which is typical of marshes throughout the region. These sites are contrasted with three sites proximal to the mouth of the Kennebec River with its approximately 25,000 km^2 drainage basin providing an opportunity to explore the importance of major rivers systems as a source of a sediment to coastal marshes in the Northeastern, U.S. Collectively, over 400 sediment accumulation rates were determined for individual deployments, capturing both spatial and temporal variability in sediment accumulation across a diverse range of regional marsh environments.