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Filter Total Items: 938
Assessing the effectiveness of nourishment in decadal barrier island morphological resilience
Nourishment has shown to be an effective method for short-term storm protection along barrier islands and sandy beaches by reducing flooding, wave attack and erosion. However, the ability of nourishment to mitigate the effects of storms and sea level rise (SLR) and improve coastal resilience over decadal time scales is not well understood. This study uses integrated models of storm...
Authors
Davina Passeri, Matthew V. Bilskie, Scott C. Hagen, Rangley C. Mickey, P. Soupy Dalyander, Victor Gonzalez
Quantifying thresholds of barrier geomorphic change in a cross-shore sediment-partitioning model
Barrier coasts, including barrier islands, beach-ridge plains, and associated landforms, can assume a broad spectrum of morphologies over multi-decadal scales that reflect conditions of sediment availability, accommodation, and relative sea-level rise. However, the quantitative thresholds of these controls on barrier-system behavior remain largely unexplored, even as modern sea-level...
Authors
Daniel J. Ciarletta, Jennifer L. Miselis, Justin L. Shawler, Christopher J. Hein
Piping plovers demonstrate regional differences in nesting habitat selection patterns along the U.S. Atlantic coast
Habitat studies that encompass a large portion of a species’ geographic distribution can explain characteristics that are either consistent or variable, further informing inference from more localized studies and improving management successes throughout the range. We identified landscape characteristics at Piping Plover nests at 21 sites distributed from Massachusetts to North Carolina...
Authors
Sara Lynn Zeigler, Benjamin T. Gutierrez, Anne Hecht, Nathaniel G. Plant, Emily J. Sturdivant
Gulf of Mexico blue hole harbors high levels of novel microbial lineages
Exploration of oxygen-depleted marine environments has consistently revealed novel microbial taxa and metabolic capabilities that expand our understanding of microbial evolution and ecology. Marine blue holes are shallow karst formations characterized by low oxygen and high organic matter content. They are logistically challenging to sample, and thus our understanding of their...
Authors
N.V. Patin, Z.A. Dietrich, A. Stancil, M. Quinan, J.S. Beckler, E. R. Hall, J Culter, Christopher F. Smith, Martial Taillefert, F.J. Stewart
Sea state from single optical images: A methodology to derive wind-generated ocean waves from cameras, drones and satellites
Sea state is a key variable in ocean and coastal dynamics. The sea state is either sparsely measured by wave buoys and satellites or modelled over large scales. Only a few attempts have been devoted to sea state measurements covering a large domain; in particular its estimation from optical images. With optical technologies becoming omnipresent, optical images offer incomparable spatial...
Authors
Rafael Almar, Erwin W. J. Bergsma, Patrico A. Catalan, Rodrigo Cienfuegos, Leandro Suarez, Felipe Lucero, Alexandre Nicolae Lerma, Franck Desmazes, Eleonora Perugini, Margaret L. Palmsten, Chris Chickadel
Relative influence of antecedent topography and sea-level rise on barrier-island migration
The response of barrier islands to sea-level rise is modulated by combinations of coastal processes, eco-geomorphic feedbacks, and structural controls, such as antecedent topography. Interactions among these drivers can lead to complex and non-linear changes in island morphology and transitions between migrational, erosional, or progradational states. This study seeks to constrain the...
Authors
Justin L. Shawler, Daniel J. Ciarletta, Jennifer E. Connell, Bianca Q. Boggs, Jorge Lorenzo-Trueba, Christopher J. Hein
Reestablishing a stepping-stone population of the threatened elkhorn coral Acropora palmata to aid regional recovery
Recovery of the elkhorn coral Acropora palmata is critical to reversing coral reef ecosystem collapse in the western Atlantic, but the species is severely threatened. To gauge potential for the species’ restoration in Florida, USA, we conducted an assisted migration experiment where 50 coral fragments of 5 nursery-raised genetic strains (genets) from the upper Florida Keys were moved to...
Authors
Ilsa B. Kuffner, Anastasios Stathakopoulos, Lauren Toth, Lucy Bartlett
Development and application of an empirical dune growth model for evaluating barrier island recovery from storms
Coastal zone managers require models that predict barrier island change on decadal time scales to estimate coastal vulnerability, and plan habitat restoration and coastal protection projects. To meet these needs, methods must be available for predicting dune recovery as well as dune erosion. In the present study, an empirical dune growth model (EDGR) was developed to predict the...
Authors
P. Soupy Dalyander, Rangley C. Mickey, Davina Passeri, Nathaniel G. Plant
Increasing comparability among coral bleaching experiments
Coral bleaching is the single largest global threat to coral reefs worldwide. Integrating the diverse body of work on coral bleaching is critical to understanding and combating this global problem. Yet investigating the drivers, patterns, and processes of coral bleaching poses a major challenge. A recent review of published experiments revealed a wide range of experimental variables used...
Authors
Andrea G Grottoli, R. J. Toonen, R. van Woesik, R. Vega Thurber, M. E. Warner, R. H. McLachlan, James T. Price, K. D. Bahr, Iliana B. Baums, K. Castillo, M. A. Coffroth, R. Cunning, K. Dobson, M. Donahue, James L. Hench, R. Iglesias-Prieto, D. W. Kemp, Carly D Kenkel, D. I. Kline, Ilsa B. Kuffner, Jessica Matthews, A. Mayfield, J. Padilla-Gamino, S. R. Palumbi, Christian Voolstra, V. M. Weis, H. C. Wu
Sensitivity of storm response to antecedent topography in the XBeach model
Antecedent topography is an important aspect of coastal morphology when studying and forecasting coastal change hazards. The uncertainty in morphologic response of storm-impact models and their use in short-term hazard forecasting and decadal forecasting is important to account for when considering a coupled model framework. This study provided a methodology to investigate uncertainty of...
Authors
Rangley C. Mickey, P. Soupy Dalyander, Robert T. McCall, Davina Passeri
Simulating wave runup on an intermediate–reflective beach using a wave-resolving and a wave-averaged version of XBeach
The prediction of wave runup, as well as its components, time-averaged setup and the time-varying swash, is a key element of coastal storm hazard assessments, as wave runup controls the transitions between morphodynamic response types such as dune erosion and overwash, and the potential for flooding by wave overtopping. While theoretically able to simulate the dominant low-frequency...
Authors
A.F. de beer, R.T. McCall, Joseph W. Long, M.F.S. Tissier, A.J.H.M. Reniers
The roles of storminess and sea level rise in decadal barrier island evolution
Models of alongshore sediment transport during quiescent conditions, storm‐driven barrier island morphology, and poststorm dune recovery are integrated to assess decadal barrier island evolution under scenarios of increased sea levels and variability in storminess (intensity and frequency). Model results indicate barrier island response regimes of keeping pace, narrowing, flattening...
Authors
Davina Passeri, P. Soupy Dalyander, Joseph W. Long, Rangley C. Mickey, Robert L Jenkins, David M. Thompson, Nathaniel G. Plant, Elizabeth Godsey, Victor Gonzalez