Amy East
I study how landscapes change over time, focusing on response to hydroclimatic and anthropogenic disturbances. These studies inform resource management as well as fundamental understanding of earth-surface processes. I am also interested in how sediment moves from source to sink, and how the sedimentary record reflects changes in sediment supply and transport.
Research Topics
Landscape Response to Climate Change
Climatic changes associated with modern global warming have been documented widely, but physical landscape responses are poorly understood. Landscape signals of modern climate change relate to human health and safety, infrastructure, water security, and ecosystems. Our project investigates landscape responses to modern climate change, primarily in the western US, focusing on slope failures, watershed sediment yields, river morphology, and aeolian (wind-blown) sediment mobilization.
Post-Fire Sediment Mobilization
Watershed sediment yields increase after fire, but by how much and with what driving factors is not well understood for some regions. Our group studies several CA wildfires, monitoring sediment yield and related processes. We have studied landscape change after seven California fires spanning 2016 to 2022.
Effects of Large Dam Removal
Colleagues and I have studied river response to large dam removals on the Elwha River, WA, and Carmel River, CA, and study the Klamath River (CA and OR) preparing for dam removals there. I helped lead a USGS Powell Center working group on the state of dam-removal science.
Landscape Response to Hydroclimatic Extremes
Western US landscapes export large sediment fluxes, due to steep terrain, tectonic activity, and potential for extreme rain. I study landscape response to hydroclimatic disturbances—drought and extreme rain. We studied sediment export from the San Lorenzo River, CA, from record rainfall in 2017; and debris flows caused by intense rain in 2018 over the Tuolumne basin. Understanding such disturbances is critical to constraining effects of extreme events on landscapes and sediment budgets.
Landscape Evolution in the Colorado River Ecosystem
From 2003 to 2017 I studied connectivity among fluvial, aeolian, and hillslope processes in the Colorado River corridor, AZ. Since 1963, dam operations have altered flows and sediment supply in the Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park. Loss of sandbars in the dammed river reduces windblown sand supply to aeolian dunes, affecting archaeological-site stability and ecosystem properties.
Aeolian Landscape Stability
Our work quantified sediment accumulation and landscape stability in areas of the California desert considered for solar-energy projects. I also studied aeolian landscapes on the Navajo Nation, where during drought wind-blown sand mobility has destabilized ground surfaces, endangering housing and transportation, jeopardizing grazing lands, and impacting air quality.
Professional Experience
Research Geologist, 2006-present: USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Santa Cruz, CA, Principal Investigator of Landscape Response to Disturbance project
Editor-in-Chief, January 2019-present: Journal of Geophysical Research, Earth Surface
Postdoctoral Researcher, 2003-2006: USGS/UC Santa Cruz
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Geology and Geophysics, 2003: MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
B.S., Geological Sciences, 1997: Tufts University
Science and Products
Field, geotechnical, and meteorological data of the 22 March 2018 narrow cold frontal rainband (NCFR) and its effects, Tuolumne River canyon, Sierra Nevada Foothills, California
Floodplain data from the Hoh, Elwha, Queets, and Quinault Rivers in Olympic National Park, 1939-2013
River Valley Sediment Connectivity Data, Colorado River, Grand Canyon
River-channel topography and sediment grain size on the Elwha River, Washington, 2006 to 2017
Multichannel sparker seismic-reflection data of field activity 2016-656-FA; between Icy Point and Dixon Entrance, Gulf of Alaska from 2016-08-07 to 2016-08-26
River-channel topography, grain size, and turbidity records from the Carmel River, California, before, during, and after removal of San Clemente Dam
A regime shift in sediment export from a coastal watershed during a record wet winter, California: Implications for landscape response to hydroclimatic extremes
Quantifying and forecasting changes in the areal extent of river valley sediment in response to altered hydrology and land cover
Sediment transport and deposition
River response to large‐dam removal in a Mediterranean hydroclimatic setting: Carmel River, California, USA
Slope failure and mass transport processes along the Queen Charlotte Fault Zone, western British Columbia
Multibeam echosounder (MBES) images, 3.5 kHz seismic-reflection profiles and piston cores obtained along the southern Queen Charlotte Fault Zone are used to map and date mass-wasting events at this transform margin – a seismically active boundary that separates the Pacific Plate from the North American Plate. Whereas the upper continental slope adjacent to and east (upslope) of the fault zone offs
Slope failure and mass transport processes along the Queen Charlotte Fault, southeastern Alaska
The Queen Charlotte Fault defines the Pacific–North America transform plate boundary in western Canada and southeastern Alaska for c. 900 km. The entire length of the fault is submerged along a continental margin dominated by Quaternary glacial processes, yet the geomorphology along the margin has never been systematically examined due to the absence of high-resolution seafloor mapping data. Hence
The response of source-bordering aeolian dunefields to sediment-supply changes 1: Effects of wind variability and river-valley morphodynamics
The response of source-bordering aeolian dunefields to sediment-supply changes 2: Controlled floods of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA
Reply to ‘Wolf-triggered trophic cascades and stream channel dynamics in Olympic National Park: a comment on East et al. (2017)’ by Robert Beschta and William Ripple
Morphodynamic evolution following sediment release from the world’s largest dam removal
Sediment pulses can cause widespread, complex changes to rivers and coastal regions. Quantifying landscape response to sediment-supply changes is a long-standing problem in geomorphology, but the unanticipated nature of most sediment pulses rarely allows for detailed measurement of associated landscape processes and evolution. The intentional removal of two large dams on the Elwha River (Washingto
Removal of San Clemente Dam did more than restore fish passage
Geomorphic responses to dam removal in the United States – a two-decade perspective
Non-USGS Publications**
ISSN: 0197-9337 , 1096-9837 (online) , 1096-9837; DOI: 10.1002/esp.5561
Draut, A.E., and Clift, P.D., 2001, Geochemical evolution of arc magmatism during arc-continent collision, South Mayo, Ireland: Geology v. 29 (6): 543–546. doi: 10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0543:GEOAMD>2.0.CO;2
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
Field, geotechnical, and meteorological data of the 22 March 2018 narrow cold frontal rainband (NCFR) and its effects, Tuolumne River canyon, Sierra Nevada Foothills, California
Floodplain data from the Hoh, Elwha, Queets, and Quinault Rivers in Olympic National Park, 1939-2013
River Valley Sediment Connectivity Data, Colorado River, Grand Canyon
River-channel topography and sediment grain size on the Elwha River, Washington, 2006 to 2017
Multichannel sparker seismic-reflection data of field activity 2016-656-FA; between Icy Point and Dixon Entrance, Gulf of Alaska from 2016-08-07 to 2016-08-26
River-channel topography, grain size, and turbidity records from the Carmel River, California, before, during, and after removal of San Clemente Dam
A regime shift in sediment export from a coastal watershed during a record wet winter, California: Implications for landscape response to hydroclimatic extremes
Quantifying and forecasting changes in the areal extent of river valley sediment in response to altered hydrology and land cover
Sediment transport and deposition
River response to large‐dam removal in a Mediterranean hydroclimatic setting: Carmel River, California, USA
Slope failure and mass transport processes along the Queen Charlotte Fault Zone, western British Columbia
Multibeam echosounder (MBES) images, 3.5 kHz seismic-reflection profiles and piston cores obtained along the southern Queen Charlotte Fault Zone are used to map and date mass-wasting events at this transform margin – a seismically active boundary that separates the Pacific Plate from the North American Plate. Whereas the upper continental slope adjacent to and east (upslope) of the fault zone offs
Slope failure and mass transport processes along the Queen Charlotte Fault, southeastern Alaska
The Queen Charlotte Fault defines the Pacific–North America transform plate boundary in western Canada and southeastern Alaska for c. 900 km. The entire length of the fault is submerged along a continental margin dominated by Quaternary glacial processes, yet the geomorphology along the margin has never been systematically examined due to the absence of high-resolution seafloor mapping data. Hence
The response of source-bordering aeolian dunefields to sediment-supply changes 1: Effects of wind variability and river-valley morphodynamics
The response of source-bordering aeolian dunefields to sediment-supply changes 2: Controlled floods of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA
Reply to ‘Wolf-triggered trophic cascades and stream channel dynamics in Olympic National Park: a comment on East et al. (2017)’ by Robert Beschta and William Ripple
Morphodynamic evolution following sediment release from the world’s largest dam removal
Sediment pulses can cause widespread, complex changes to rivers and coastal regions. Quantifying landscape response to sediment-supply changes is a long-standing problem in geomorphology, but the unanticipated nature of most sediment pulses rarely allows for detailed measurement of associated landscape processes and evolution. The intentional removal of two large dams on the Elwha River (Washingto
Removal of San Clemente Dam did more than restore fish passage
Geomorphic responses to dam removal in the United States – a two-decade perspective
Non-USGS Publications**
ISSN: 0197-9337 , 1096-9837 (online) , 1096-9837; DOI: 10.1002/esp.5561
Draut, A.E., and Clift, P.D., 2001, Geochemical evolution of arc magmatism during arc-continent collision, South Mayo, Ireland: Geology v. 29 (6): 543–546. doi: 10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0543:GEOAMD>2.0.CO;2
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.