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Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

2022 Annual Report

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Mapping methane reduction potential of tidal wetland restoration in the United States

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Opportunities to improve alignment with the FAIR Principles for U.S. Geological Survey data

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Scientific literature and information products produced by Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center staff

Featured Journal Article

Herring River, Wellfleet, MA

Calibrating optical turbidity measurements with suspended-sediment concentrations from the Herring River in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, from November 2018 to November 2019

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Featured USGS Series

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Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center—2022 Annual Report.  The 2022 annual report highlights accomplishments, includes a list of publications, and summarizes the work of the center and each of the science groups.

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Sound Waves

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Coastal and Marine Research News from Across the USGS

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Filter Total Items: 1691

National assessment of shoreline change: Historical shoreline change in the Hawaiian Islands

Sandy beaches of the United States are some of the most popular tourist and recreational destinations. Coastal property constitutes some of the most valuable real estate in the country. Beaches are an ephemeral environment between water and land with unique and fragile natural ecosystems that have evolved in equilibrium with the ever-changing winds, waves, and water levels. Beachfront lands are th
Authors
Charles H. Fletcher, Bradley M. Romine, Ayesha S. Genz, Matthew M. Barbee, Matthew Dyer, Tiffany R. Anderson, S. Chyn Lim, Sean Vitousek, Christopher Bochicchio, Bruce M. Richmond
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Shifts in identity and activity of methanotrophs in arctic lake sediments in response to temperature changes

Methane (CH4) flux to the atmosphere is mitigated via microbial CH4 oxidation in sediments and water. As arctic temperaturesincrease, understanding the effects of temperature on the activity and identity of methanotrophs in arctic lake sediments is importantto predicting future CH4 emissions. We used DNA-based stable-isotope probing (SIP), quantitative PCR (Q-PCR), andpyrosequencing analyses to id
Authors
Ruo He, Matthew J. Wooller, John W. Pohlman, John Quensen, James M. Tiedje, Mary Beth Leigh
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Modeling transport and deposition of the Mekong River sediment

A Coupled Wave–Ocean–SedimentTransport Model was used to hindcast coastal circulation and fine sedimenttransport on the Mekong shelf in southeastern Asian in 2005. Comparisons with limited observations showed that the model simulation captured the regional patterns and temporal variability of surface wave, sea level, and suspended sediment concentration reasonably well. Significant seasonality in
Authors
Zuo Xue, Ruoying He, J. Paul Liu, John C. Warner
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Refining the model of barrier island formation along a paraglacial coast in the Gulf of Maine

Details of the internal architecture and local geochronology of Plum Island, the longest barrier in the Gulf of Maine, have refined our understanding of barrier island formation in paraglacial settings. Ground-penetrating radar and shallow-seismic profiles coupled with sediment cores and radiocarbon dates provide an 8000-year evolutionary history of this barrier system in response to changes in se
Authors
Christopher J. Hein, Duncan M. FitzGerald, Emily A. Carruthers, Byron D. Stone, Walter A. Barnhardt, Allen M. Gontz
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Exploring the erodibility of sediments and harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Maine

Investigators at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are cooperating with scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to investigate harmful algal blooms along the New England coast in the Gulf of Maine. These blooms are caused by cysts of the dinoflagellate Alexandrium fundyense that overwinter in the bottom sediments and germinate in spring. Depending on conditions such as temperatur
Authors
Bradford Butman, Patrick J. Dickhudt, Bruce A. Keafer
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Sea-floor geology and sedimentary processes in the vicinity of Cross Rip Channel, Nantucket Sound, offshore southeastern Massachusetts

Gridded multibeam bathymetry covers approximately 10.4 square kilometers of sea floor in the vicinity of Cross Rip Channel in Nantucket Sound, offshore southeastern Massachusetts. Although originally collected for charting purposes during National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hydrographic survey H12007, these acoustic data, and the sea-floor sediment sampling and bottom photography stati
Authors
L. J. Poppe, K.Y. McMullen, S.D. Ackerman, J.D. Schaer, D.B. Wright
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Sea-floor geology of Long Island Sound north of Duck Pond Point, New York

The U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection are mapping the sea floor in coastal areas of the northeastern United States. As part of the project, more than 100 square kilometers of multibeam-echosounder data, 23 sediment samples, bottom video, and 86 still photographs were obtained from an area i
Authors
K.Y. McMullen, L. J. Poppe, W. W. Danforth, D.S. Blackwood, J.D. Schaer, K.A. Glomb, E. F. Doran
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Accounts of damage from historical earthquakes in the northeastern Caribbean to aid in the determination of their location and intensity magnitudes

Earthquakes have been documented in the northeastern Caribbean since the arrival of Columbus to the Americas; written accounts of these felt earthquakes exist in various parts of the world. To better understand the earthquake cycle in the Caribbean, the records of earthquakes in earlier catalogs and historical documents from various archives, which are now available online, were critically examine

Authors
Claudia H. Flores, Uri S. ten Brink, William H. Bakun
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, 2020 Puerto Rico Earthquakes

Ocean-atmosphere dynamics during Hurricane Ida and Nor'Ida: An application of the coupled ocean-;atmosphere–wave–sediment transport (COAWST) modeling system

The coupled ocean–atmosphere–wave–sediment transport (COAWST) modeling system was used to investigate atmosphere–ocean–wave interactions in November 2009 during Hurricane Ida and its subsequent evolution to Nor'Ida, which was one of the most costly storm systems of the past two decades. One interesting aspect of this event is that it included two unique atmospheric extreme conditions, a hurricane
Authors
Maitane Olabarrieta, John C. Warner, Brandy N. Armstrong, Joseph B. Zambon, Ruoying He
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Hurricane Ida, Hurricanes

Holocene aridification of India

Spanning a latitudinal range typical for deserts, the Indian peninsula is fertile instead and sustains over a billion people through monsoonal rains. Despite the strong link between climate and society, our knowledge of the long‐term monsoon variability is incomplete over the Indian subcontinent. Here we reconstruct the Holocene paleoclimate in the core monsoon zone (CMZ) of the Indian peninsula u
Authors
C. Ponton, L. Giosan, T.I. Eglinton, D.Q. Fuller, J.E. Johnson, P. Kumar, Timothy S. Collett
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

The effect of diagenesis and fluid migration on rare earth element distribution in pore fluids of the northern Cascadia accretionary margin

Analytical challenges in obtaining high quality measurements of rare earth elements (REEs) from small pore fluid volumes have limited the application of REEs as deep fluid geochemical tracers. Using a recently developed analytical technique, we analyzed REEs from pore fluids collected from Sites U1325 and U1329, drilled on the northern Cascadia margin during the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (
Authors
Ji-Hoon Kim, Marta E. Torres, Brian A. Haley, Miriam Kastner, John W. Pohlman, Michael Riedel, Young-Joo Lee
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Quantifying anthropogenically driven morphologic changes on a barrier island: Fire Island National Seashore, New York

Beach scraping, beach replenishment, and the presence of moderate development have altered the morphology of the dune–beach system at Fire Island National Seashore, located on a barrier island on the south coast of Long Island, New York. Seventeen communities are interspersed with sections of natural, nonmodified land within the park boundary. Beach width, dune elevation change, volume change, and
Authors
Meredith G. Kratzmann, Cheryl J. Hapke
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center