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Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center is one of three centers serving the mission of the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program—the primary Federal marine geology and physical science research program responsible for the Nation’s entire coastal and marine landscape. 

News

What are Key Conditions for Marsh Survival Amid Rising Seas?

What are Key Conditions for Marsh Survival Amid Rising Seas?

We Make Treasure Maps: USGS Charts the Seafloor to Help Locate Critical Minerals, Precious Metals, and Other Vital Resources

We Make Treasure Maps: USGS Charts the Seafloor to Help Locate Critical Minerals, Precious Metals, and Other Vital Resources

News Briefs: February-March 2025

News Briefs: February-March 2025

Publications

Distribution and disturbances of ditches across salt marshes of the Northeast U.S. with implications for management and restoration

Effective management of valuable coastal systems, such as salt marshes requires an understanding of the complex stressors influencing their continued threat of drowning. However, efforts to determine the effects of one potential stressor, ditches, have produced diverging results complicating management efforts. Ditches (linear trenches dug to drain salt marshes for agriculture and...
Authors
Erin K. Peck, Julie E. Walker, Kate Ackerman, Joel A. Carr, Maureen D. Correll, Zafer Defne, Linda A. Deegan, Mitchell Eaton, Neil K. Ganju, Mitch Hartley, Catherine Johnson, Jason J Mercer, Katharine J. Ruskin, Jonathan D. Woodruff, Brian Yellen

Tracking diagenetic alteration of magnetic susceptibility in thrust ridge and slope basin sediments of the Cascadia margin (ODP Sites 1249 and 1252; IODP Site U1325)

We investigated sediment core records from the Cascadia Margin (Ocean Drilling Program Sites 1249 and 1252 at Hydrate Ridge; Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site U1325 offshore Vancouver Island) using a Zr/Rb heavy mineral proxy from X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning to identify intervals of primary detrital magnetic susceptibility (κ) and predict intervals where diagenesis caused...
Authors
Stephen C. Phillips, Joel E. Johnson, William Clyde, Wei-Li Hong, Jacob Setera, Marta E. Torres

Decomposing the Tea Bag Index and finding slower organic matter loss rates at higher elevations and deeper soil horizons in a minerogenic salt marsh

Environmental gradients can affect organic matter decay within and across wetlands and contribute to spatial heterogeneity in soil carbon stocks. We tested the sensitivity of decay rates to tidal flooding and soil depth in a minerogenic salt marsh using the Tea Bag Index (TBI). Tea bags were buried at 10 and 50 cm depths across an elevation gradient in a subtropical Spartina alterniflora...
Authors
Satyatejas G. Reddy, W. Reilly Farrell, Fengrun Wu, Steven C. Pennings, Jonathan Sanderman, Meagan J. Eagle, Christopher Craft, Amanda C. Spivak

Science

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Coastal Wetland Vulnerability to Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise: Understanding Ecological Thresholds and Ecosystem Transformations

Eighteen USGS coastal scientists from all four coasts of the conterminous United States are working together to advance the understanding of climate change and sea-level rise impacts to coastal wetlands.
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Environmental Impacts following the 1970 Testing of Seabed Mining Equipment on the Blake Plateau- Quantification of Benthic Communities Across Disturbance Gradients

USGS researchers will characterize the ecology of benthic communities associated with deep-sea environments, including hardground features and adjacent soft sediments, and will build upon previous work conducted in areas off the U.S. east coast under consideration for oil and gas leases.
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Environmental Impacts following the 1970 Testing of Seabed Mining Equipment on the Blake Plateau- Quantification of Benthic Communities Across Disturbance Gradients

USGS researchers will characterize the ecology of benthic communities associated with deep-sea environments, including hardground features and adjacent soft sediments, and will build upon previous work conducted in areas off the U.S. east coast under consideration for oil and gas leases.
Learn More

Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS)

Software for calculating positional boundary change over time The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 6 is a standalone application that calculates shoreline or boundary change over time. The GIS of a user’s choice is used to prepare the data for DSAS. Like previous versions, DSAS v.6 enables a user to calculate rate-of-change statistics from multiple historical shoreline positions...
link

Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS)

Software for calculating positional boundary change over time The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) version 6 is a standalone application that calculates shoreline or boundary change over time. The GIS of a user’s choice is used to prepare the data for DSAS. Like previous versions, DSAS v.6 enables a user to calculate rate-of-change statistics from multiple historical shoreline positions...
Learn More
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