Images

Scientists collected sand auger cores from Fire Island to help reconstruct the evolution of the barrier over the last several centuries, with the goal of quantifying changes in sediment input and partitioning through time (e.g., how sand is distributed between the terrestrial portion of the barrier and the beach/shoreface).

Student contractor Erin Lyons swims over a coral reef during research surveys.

Salt marshes provide important economic and ecologic services but are vulnerable to habitat loss, particularly due to shoreline erosion from storms and sea level rise. Sediments eroded at the marsh edge are either delivered onto the marsh platform or into the estuary, the latter resulting in a net loss to the marsh sediment budget and released soil carbon.

Coastal wetland shoreline position is mapped from historic and modern data sources, such as topographic sheets, aerial imagery, and satellite imagery. From these data, the shoreline change rate is determined from the date of the data source and the distance between each shoreline.

USGS scientists survey the precise location of a camera calibration target. The surveyed locations are used to georeference USGS CoastCam imagery.

Geologist Alisha Ellis kneels in the marsh grass while collecting sediment samples in Mississippi.

This Picarro L2130-i Isotope and Gas Concentration Analyzer is housed at the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.

Dune restoration efforts in Isabela, Puerto Rico, using wooden planks to promote sand accumulation.

Wooden boardwalk built to protect fragile dunes from pedestrians in Isabela, Puerto Rico.

Coral reef in La Parguera, Lajas Puerto Rico shows various types and conditions of corals, including sea fan corals (Gorgonia) in the center.

Coral reef in La Parguera, Lajas Puerto Rico shows a sea fan coral (Gorgonia) in the center, surrounded other corals and fishes.

Mangroves grow along the coast in La Parguera, Lajas, Puerto Rico. Mangroves help protect the coast during storms.

Time-lapse of USGS researchers raising a mechanical mast with a high-resolution camera mounted on top, which was deployed atop a dune in the U.S.

Michael Itzkin at the DUNEX field location on Pea Island, North Carolina. The instruments next to Michael include lidars, pressure sensors, and sonars to measure morphologic change, hydrodynamics, and sediment transport.

Two high-resolution, digital cameras were mounted on towers overlooking the beach, dunes, and instrument arrays in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on September 18, 2021, as part of the DUring Nea

Researchers from the USGS and North Carolina Universites set up their equipment on installed poles stretching from the dune to the surf zone.

To install instruments offshore professional divers were hired to work alongside USGS personnel. Here, long segments of pipe are jetted into the seafloor to which instruments will be attached to measure offshore oceanographic conditions.

USGS personnel install signs on the beach warning and informing beach goers of the DUNEX experiment

USGS researcher Jenna Brown takes a measurement with a real time kinematic GPS receiver, this will give her an accurate position and height of the aluminum pole beneath it, which will have mutliple instruments attached to it to measure water flow and elevation changes.

Overhead image collected by a helikite of field work being conducted in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. An alternative to uncrewed aerial systems (UAS; commonly known as 'drones'), USGS scientists use helikites equipped with cameras to collect imagery of the coastline.

USGS scientists mounted this high-resolution digital camera on an observation tower in the dune at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The camera overlooks the beach, dune, and an instrument array, and collects images throughout calm and storm conditions.