Publications
Scientific reports, journal articles, and information products produced by USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center scientists.
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Sound Waves Newsletter
Sound Waves Newsletter
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Filter Total Items: 1337
Shifting sands: The influence of coral reefs on shoreline erosion from short-term storm protection to long-term disequilibrium
Climate change is exacerbating shoreline erosion and flooding, posing significant risks to coastal communities. Although traditional coastal defenses such as seawalls, dykes, and breakwaters offer protection from these hazards, their high environmental and economic costs are driving interest in cost-competitive nature-based solutions. Coral reef restoration is a nature-based solution that may be p
Authors
Stephan Bitterwolf, Borja Reguero, Curt Storlazzi, Michael W. Beck
Postfire sediment mobilization and its downstream implications across California, 1984 – 2021
Fire facilitates erosion through changes in vegetation and soil, with major postfire erosion commonly occurring even with moderate rainfall. As climate warms, the western United States (U.S.) is experiencing an intensifying fire regime and increasing frequency of extreme rain. We evaluated whether these hydroclimatic changes are evident in patterns of postfire erosion by modeling hillslope erosion
Authors
Helen Willemien Dow, Amy E. East, Joel B. Sankey, Jonathan Warrick, Jaime Kostelnik, Donald N. Lindsay, Jason W. Kean
Quantifying the coastal hazard risk reduction benefits of coral reef restoration in the U.S. Virgin Islands
Coastal habitat restoration, especially of coral reef ecosystems, can significantly reduce the exposure of coastal communities to natural hazards and, consequently, the risk of wave-driven flooding. Likewise, reef degradation can increase coastal flood risks to people and property. In this study, the valuation of coral reefs in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), along the coasts of St. Croix
Authors
Camila Gaido-Lasserre, Valerie Pietsch McNulty, Curt Storlazzi, Borja Reguero, Denise Perez, Sandra Fogg, Kristen A. Cumming, Jessica Ward, Steve Schill, Celeste Jarvis, Michael W. Beck
Reversal in estuarine sand supply driven by Holocene sea level rise: A model for sand transport in large structural estuaries, San Francisco Bay, California, USA
Reversal in estuarine sand supply driven by Holocene sea level rise: A model for sand transport in large structural estuaries, San Francisco Bay, California, USA
Authors
M.A. Malkowski, Z.T. Sickmann, Theresa A. Fregoso, Lester McKee, D. Stockli, Bruce E. Jaffe
Post-fire sediment yield from a central California watershed: Field measurements and validation of the WEPP model
In a warming climate, an intensifying fire regime and higher likelihood of extreme rain are expected to increase watershed sediment yield in many regions. Understanding regional variability in landscape response to fire and post-fire rainfall is essential for managing water resources and infrastructure. We measured sediment yield resulting from sequential wildfire and extreme rain and flooding in
Authors
Amy E. East, Joshua B. Logan, Helen Willemien Dow, Douglas P. Smith, Pat Iampietro, Jonathan Warrick, Thomas Lorenson, Leticia Hallas, Benjamin Kozlowicz
Palaeontological signatures of the Anthropocene are distinct from those of previous epochs
The “Great Acceleration” beginning in the mid-20th century provides the causal mechanism of the Anthropocene, which has been proposed as a new epoch of geological time beginning in 1952 CE. Here we identify key parameters and their diagnostic palaeontological signals of the Anthropocene, including the rapid breakdown of discrete biogeographical ranges for marine and terrestrial species, rapid chan
Authors
Mark A. Williams, Jan Zalasiewicz, Anthony D. Barnosky, Reinhold Leinfelder, Martin J. Head, Colin N. Waters, Francine M.G. McCarthy, Alejandro Cearreta, David C. Aldridge, Mary McGann, Bruce Hamilton, Colin P. Summerhayes, Jaia Syvitski, Jens Zinke, Andrew B. Cundy, Barbara Fialkiewicz-Koziel, J.R. McNeill, Michinobu Kuwae, Neil L. Rose, Simon D. Turner, Yoshiki Saito, Michael Wagreich, M. Allison Stegner, Moriaki Yasuhara, Yongming Han, Amy Wrisdale, Rachael Holmes, Juan Carlos Berrio
Seasonality of retreat rate of a wave-exposed marsh edge
Wave-driven erosion of marsh boundaries is a major cause of marsh loss, but little research has captured the effect of seasonal differences on marsh-edge retreat rates to illuminate temporal patterns of when the majority of this erosion is occurring. Using five surface models captured over a study year of a marsh with a steep escarped boundary in South San Francisco Bay, we find a pronounced seaso
Authors
Lukas T. WinklerPrins, Jessica R. Lacy, Mark T. Stacey, Joshua B. Logan, Andrew W. Stevens
Invertebrate trophic structure on marine ferromanganese and phosphorite hardgrounds
The Southern California Borderland hosts a variety of geologic and oceanographic features that allow for diverse habitats to occur in a restricted region with a strong oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) and hard substrates. These include ferromanganese (FeMn) crusts and phosphorites targeted for deep-seabed mining in other regions. Baseline studies regarding hardground macro- (> 0.3 mm) and megafaunal (> 2
Authors
Olivia S. Pereira, Devin Vlach, Angelica Bradley, Jennifer Gonzalez, Kira Mizell, Lisa A. Levin
State of California sea level rise guidance: 2024 Science and policy update
No abstract available.
Authors
Susheel Adusumilli, Patrick L. Barnard, Daniel R. Cayan, Laura Engeman, Gary B. Griggs, Benjamin D. Hamlington, Kristina Hill, Felix Landerer, Phillip Thompson
CoastSeg: An accessible and extendable hub for satellite-derived-shoreline (SDS) detection and mapping
CoastSeg is an interactive browser-based program that aims to broaden the adoption of satellite-derived shoreline (SDS) detection and coastal landcover mapping workflows among coastal scientists and coastal resource management practitioners. SDS is a sub-field of coastal sciences that aims to detect and post-process a time-series of shoreline locations from publicly available satellite imagery. Co
Authors
Sharon Fitzpatrick, Daniel Buscombe, Jonathan Warrick, Mark Alan Lundine, Kilian Vos
Metal release from manganese nodules in anoxic seawater and implications for deep-sea mining dewatering operations
The potential mining of deep-sea polymetallic nodules has been gaining increasing attention due to their enrichment in metals essential for a low-carbon future. To date, there have been few scientific studies concerning the geochemical consequences of dewatered mining waste discharge into the pelagic water column, which can inform best practices in future mining operations. Here, we report the res
Authors
Yang Xiang, Janelle M. Steffen, Phoebe J. Lam, Amy Gartman, Kira Mizell, Jessica N. Fitzsimmons
Iron oxyhydroxide-rich hydrothermal deposits at the high-temperature Fåvne vent field, Mohns Ridge
The recently discovered Fåvne vent field, located at 3,040 m depth on the slow-spreading Mohns mid-ocean ridge between Greenland and Norway, is a high-temperature (≥250°C) vent field that is characterized by Fe oxyhydroxide-rich and S-poor chimneys and mounds. The vent field is located on both the hanging wall and footwall of a normal fault with a ∼1.5 km throw that forms the western edge of the ∼
Authors
Caroline Gini, John Jamieson, Eoghan P. Reeves, Amy Gartman, Thibaut Barreyre, Michael G. Babechuk, Steffen L. Jørgensen, Katleen Robert