Figure 3.

A curve family describing relationships among vertical accretion, soil organic content (LOI), and total suspended inorganic sediment (TSS) in hypothetical high‐, mid‐, and low‐marsh habitats. Calculations of vertical accretion due to organic production and mineral sedimentation are based on the pure packing densities k₁ and k₂ (see text) derived from a fit of the mixing model to the entire dataset. High, mid, and low marshes were defined as having high tides that flood the surface semi‐diurnally, with average water depths of 1, 5, and 20 cm, and with belowground refractory organic matter inputs of 80, 160, and 250 dry g m⁻² yr⁻¹, respectively. The grey area is the domain of peat formation, truncated at LOI = 0.6.