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.