In the recent years coastal marshes and submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) beds within the Chesapeake Bay have been declining with rising sea level and warming of the bay. Understanding what is affecting deposition in the marshes could help the efforts being made to preserve them, and sediment provided from SAV diebacks could be playing a major role. A transect of cores, one within the SAV bed and four within the marsh, were taken and analyzed for median grain size and organic content. This along with 210Pb dating was used to assess possible linkages between the SAV bed and the marsh. The SAV core was represented by large median grain size (1-2 phi) and low organic content (<10%), with two separate dieback events represented. These events occurred from 2005-2008 and 2010-2011 and thinned out landward of the SAV bed. Prior to 2005 there were no SAV dieback events to be seen, but with the rising temperature they are now providing a large amount of sediment to the marsh.

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