Publications
Scientific reports, journal articles, and information products produced by USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center scientists.
Filter Total Items: 1337
Vulnerability to sea-level rise varies among estuaries and habitat types: Lessons learned from a network of surface elevation tables in Puget Sound
Estuarine systems that provide valuable ecosystem services to society and important foraging and rearing habitat for fish and wildlife species continue to undergo degradation. In Puget Sound, WA, as much as 70–80% of historic estuarine habitat has been lost to anthropogenic development, and continued losses are expected through the end of the twenty-first century due to rising sea levels. To evalu
Authors
Melanie J. Davis, Katrina L. Poppe, John M. Rybczyk, Eric E. Grossman, Isa Woo, Joshua W. Chamberlin, Michelle Totman, Todd Zackey, Frank Leonetti, Suzanne Shull, Susan E. W. De La Cruz
Database and time series of nearshore waves along the Alaskan coast from the United States-Canada border to the Bering Sea
Alaska’s Arctic coast has some of the highest coastal erosion rates in the world, primarily driven by permafrost thaw and increasing wave energy. In the Arctic, a warming climate is driving sea ice cover to decrease in space and time. A lack of long-term observational wave data along Alaska’s coast challenges the ability of engineers, scientists, and planners to study and address threats and effec
Authors
Anita C. Engelstad, Li H. Erikson, Borja G. Reguero, Ann E. Gibbs, Kees Nederhoff
Consumer isoscapes reveal heterogeneous food webs in deep-sea submarine canyons and adjacent slopes
The deep sea is the largest biome on earth, but one of the least studied despite its critical role in global carbon cycling and climate buffering. Deep-sea organisms largely rely on particulate organic matter from the surface ocean for energy – these organisms in turn play critical roles in energy transport, transformation, storage, and sequestration of carbon. Within the deep sea, submarine canyo
Authors
Amanda Demopoulos, Brian J. Smith, Jill Bourque, Jason Chaytor, Jennifer McClain Counts, Nancy G. Prouty, Steve W. Ross, Sandra Brooke, Gerard Duineveld, Furu Mienis
A comprehensive assessment of submarine landslides and mass wasting processes offshore southern California
It is critical to characterize submarine landslide hazards near dense coastal populations, especially in areas with active faults, which can trigger slope failure, subsequent tsunamis, and damage seabed infrastructure during earthquake shaking. Offshore southern California, numerous marine geophysical surveys have been conducted over the past decade, and high-resolution bathymetric and subsurface
Authors
M. Walton, James E. Conrad, Antoinette Gabrielle Papesh, Daniel S. Brothers, Jared W. Kluesner, Mary McGann, Peter Dartnell
First Occurrence of the nonindigenous Asian foraminifera Ammonia confertitesta in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean: Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
Observations in 2022 of intertidal and subtidal foraminiferal faunas at four localities along the central-eastern side of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, and molecular analyses have documented the first occurrence of the nonindigenous Asian species Ammonia confertitesta Zheng in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The species was present at three of these localities: Davis Lagoon south of
Authors
Mary McGann, Maria Holzmann
Physics-based satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) using Landsat OLI images
The estimation of depth in optically shallow waters using satellite imagery can be efficient and cost-effective. Active sensors measure the distance traveled by an emitted laser pulse propagating through the water with high precision and accuracy if the bottom peak intensity of the waveform is greater than the noise level. However, passive optical imaging of optically shallow water involves measur
Authors
Minsu Kim, Jeffrey J. Danielson, Curt Storlazzi, Seonkyung Park
Hydrothermal plume fallout, mass wasting, and volcanic eruptions contribute to sediments at Loki’s Castle vent field, Mohns Ridge
Sediments surrounding hydrothermal vents are important transition spaces between hydrothermal and pelagic environments. These sediments accumulate through diverse processes that include water column plume fallout, volcanic ash deposition, and mass wasting of hydrothermal chimneys and mounds superimposed upon background sedimentation which may originate from pelagic, terrestrial, and volcanic sourc
Authors
Amy Gartman, Denise M Payan, Manda Viola Au, Eoghan P. Reeves, John Jamieson, Caroline Gini, Desiree Roerdink
Forecasting storm-induced coastal flooding for 21st century sea-level rise scenarios in the Hawaiian, Mariana, and American Samoan Islands
Oceanographic, coastal engineering, ecologic, and geospatial data and tools were combined to evaluate the increased risks of storm-induced coastal flooding in the populated Hawaiian, Mariana, and American Samoan Islands as a result of climate change and sea-level rise. We followed a hybrid (dynamical and statistical) downscaling approach to map flooding due to waves and storm surge at 10-square me
Authors
Curt D. Storlazzi, Borja G. Reguero, Camila Gaido L., Kristen C. Alkins, Chris Lowry, Cornelis M. Nederhoff, Li H. Erikson, Andrea C. O'Neill, Michael W. Beck
Advanced quantitative precipitation information: Improving monitoring and forecasts of precipitation, streamflow, and coastal flooding in the San Francisco Bay area
Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information (AQPI) is a synergistic project that combines observations and models to improve monitoring and forecasts of precipitation, streamflow, and coastal flooding in the San Francisco Bay Area. As an experimental system, AQPI leverages more than a decade of research, innovation, and implementation of a statewide, state-of-the-art network of observations, a
Authors
Robert Cifelli, V Chandrasekar, Liv M. Herdman, Dave Turner, A. B. White, M. Alcott, M. C. Anderson, Patrick L. Barnard, S.K. Biswas, M. Boucher, J. Bytheway, H. Chen, H. Cutler, M. English, Li H. Erikson, F. Junyent, L. E. Johnson, J. Krebs, J. van de Lindt, J. Kim, Marty L. Leonard, Y. Ma, M. Marquis, W. Moninger, G. Pratt, C. Radhakrishnan, Michael Shields, J. Spaulding, Babak Tehranirad, R. S. Webb
Extreme low-frequency waves on the Ofu, American Samoa, reef flat
The southern fringing reef along Ofu, American Samoa, has been a focus of coral research owing to the presence of super-heated pools on the reef flat, where corals thrive in elevated sea temperatures. Here, we present the first documentation of exceptionally large low-frequency (periods > 100 s) waves over this reef flat. During a large, southerly swell event, low-frequency waves on the inner reef
Authors
Olivia Cheriton, Curt Storlazzi, Ferdinand Oberle, Kurt J. Rosenberger, Eric K. Brown
Dynamic modeling of coastal compound flooding hazards due to tides, extratropical storms, waves, and sea-level rise: A case study in the Salish Sea, Washington (USA)
The Puget Sound Coastal Storm Modeling System (PS-CoSMoS) is a tool designed to dynamically downscale future climate scenarios (i.e., projected changes in wind and pressure fields and temperature) to compute regional water levels, waves, and compound flooding over large geographic areas (100 s of kilometers) at high spatial resolutions (1 m) pertinent to coastal hazard assessments and planning. Th
Authors
Kees Nederhoff, Sean C. Crosby, Nathan R. vanArendonk, Eric E. Grossman, Babak Tehranirad, T. Leijnse, W. Klessens, Patrick L. Barnard
Physics to fish—Understanding the factors that create and sustain native fish habitat in the San Francisco Estuary
Executive SummaryThe Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) operates the Central Valley Project (CVP), one of the nation’s largest water projects. Reclamation has an ongoing need to improve the scientific basis for adaptive management of the CVP and, by extension, joint operations with California’s State Water Project. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) works cooperatively with the Bureau of Reclamati
Authors
Larry R. Brown, David E. Ayers, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Jon R. Burau, Evan T. Dailey, Bryan D. Downing, Maureen A. Downing-Kunz, Frederick V. Feyrer, Brock M. Huntsman, Tamara E. C. Kraus, Tara Morgan, Jessica R. Lacy, Francis Parchaso, Catherine A. Ruhl, Elizabeth B. Stumpner, Paul Stumpner, Janet Thompson, Matthew J. Young