Images

Jen Suttles,Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, collects water samples from a salt marsh tidal creek (East Falmouth, MA) for laboratory analysis of total organic carbon. These samples will be compared to data recorded by instrumentation deployed in an adjacent tidal creek as part of research efforts to quantify carbon dynamics in coastal ecosystems

Sand ridge morphology and bedform migration patterns offshore of Assateague Island

Neil Ganju (standing) and Patrick Dickhudt preparing an oceanographic platform to measure wetland sediment transport in Forsythe NWR, New Jersey

Sandy Brosnahan performing first solo flight as a USGS certified drone pilot.  There are multiple exciting applications for drone imagery including erosion studies and physical changes to coastal ecosystems over time. 

Piping Plover chicks

Browse graphic of Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge study area

Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey Study SIte

Groundwater data were collected in the spring and fall of 2008 from three sites representing different geological settings and biogeochemical conditions within the surficial glacial aquifer of Long Island, NY.

Browse graphic of point cloud data from low altitude aerial imagery from unmanned aerial system flights over Coast Guard Beach, Eastham, MA

Products of Structure-from-Motion applied to data collected by UAS in Black Beach, Falmouth, MA

The USGS strives to put coastal change data and information at the fingertips of users such as planners and emergency managers. The explicit goal is to enable users to integrate and apply USGS data and tools to address their specific needs. Online resources such as the Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) portal are designed with applied use of data in mind.

USGS scientist Sara Zeigler records habitat characteristics in iPlover at an ‘exclosed’ nest. On some beaches, managers erect netting around nests to protect eggs/chicks and adults from predators, allowing movement of chicks and parents to and from the nest but excluding predators

Parameters considered in models for shoreline change, barrier island characteristics, and piping plover habitat availability. Together, these three models allow for forecasts of most likely future barrier island characteristics and piping plover habitat availability given sea-level rise. 

Kathryn Smith of the USGS St.

Sunset at Sage Lot Pond Salt Marsh Observatory marks the end of 16 hour field effort. During this sampling, USGS researchers captured the exchange of materials between the marsh and estuary. This field site provides infrastructure to keep sensors deployed nearly year-round so changes across seasons and extreme events, such as large storms, are captured.

Wally Brooks records water quality data from a salt marsh creek (Cape Cod, MA)

High tides are one challenge of working in tidal wetlands! Here the marsh platform is completely submerged during a spring tide. The boardwalk, which scientists use to access the site, is also under water during this extreme high tide, while the solar panels powering some instruments remain dry.

USGS scientists doing real time kinematic measurements with a GPS pole on intertidal section of beach.

Polar bear lounging on Alaska’s north coast.

Resurrection Bay on August 8, 2016. The water appeared calm in the shelter of the inner bay, but closer to the entrance, swells coming in from the Gulf of Alaska were breaking on a small beach where the three boaters had capsized.

Tarandeep Kalra, Sediment Transport Group Scientific Programmer, setting up computer-generated simulations from a three-dimensional modeling system. This was a display at the Woods Hole Science Stroll on August 6, 2016.