Kevin D Kroeger, PhD
Kevin Kroeger has studied coastal ecosystems since 1990, with focus on a range of topics including fluxes and biogeochemistry of nitrogen in groundwater discharge to estuaries and wetlands, estuarine water quality, and carbon and greenhouse gas cycling and fluxes in coastal wetlands.
Kroeger is lead of the Biogeochemical Processes group at Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, and lead of a new project titled: Biogeochemical Drivers of Wetland Persistence and Feedbacks on Coastal Hazards The objectives of this Project are to provide guidance to federal (National Park Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, Army Corp of Engineers), state, local and private land owners and managers regarding stability and persistence of coastal wetlands under a range of hydrological management conditions and changing environmental conditions. Tidal wetlands provide critical services to society, including protection of infrastructure from coastal hazards, and habitat provision for economically important species. A large fraction of U.S. tidal wetlands, however, has been lost or degraded during recent centuries due to human actions, largely related to development and utilization of coastal lands. Feedbacks and interactions among natural and anthropogenic drivers have altered the stability and persistence of coastal wetlands. Decisions regarding hydrological management can alter the balance of organic matter production, retention and preservation, and thus management actions can either promote wetland persistence and resilience, or cause catastrophic loss of elevation, putting coastal infrastructure at increased risk of flooding or storm damage. This project impacts wetland management decisions. The contiguous U.S. has close to 2 million hectares of estuarine and marine wetlands. Nearly all of that area is under some level of management, with the federal government being the largest single manager. Land managers at FWS and NPS, and flood managers at ACOE, must make decisions regarding whether to spend substantial funds to maintain, repair and enhance water control structures under increasing rates of sea level change, or alternatively whether to reduce or remove hydrological management, to restore managed wetlands to more natural hydrology and enhance the capability of wetlands to build elevation over time, and to migrate landward. Society needs guidance and predictions regarding the result of those decisions for continued elevation gain, migration, and ongoing persistence of the wetlands.
Professional Experience
Present: Research Chemist, USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Science Center, Woods Hole, MA
2004-2006: Mendenhall Fellow, US Geological Survey Geologic Division, St Petersburg, FL
2003-2004: Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA
1997-2003: Research Fellow and Teaching Fellow, Bos
Education and Certifications
PhD Boston University Marine Program (Biogeochemistry)
M.S. University of Connecticut (Marine Science)
B.A. University of Tennessee (Ecology)
Affiliations and Memberships*
Contributing Author: 2nd State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR-2), Chapter 15 Tidal Wetlands and Estuaries
Lead, USGS Woods Hole Coastal Biogeochemical Processes Project
Participant, 2017 EPA AFOL
Science and Products
Continuous Monitoring Data From Herring River Wetlands Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 2015-Jan2020
Continuous Monitoring Data From Great Barnstable Marsh on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 2017-19
Tidal marsh biomass field plot and remote sensing datasets for six regions in the conterminous United States (ver. 2.0, June 2020)
Continuous monitoring data from natural and restored salt marshes on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 2016-17
Time-series of biogeochemical and flow data from a tidal salt-marsh creek, Sage Lot Pond, Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts, 2012-2016 (ver. 2.0, July 2023)
Geochemical data supporting analysis of geochemical conditions and nitrogen transport in nearshore groundwater and the subterranean estuary at a Cape Cod embayment, East Falmouth, Massachusetts
Collection, analysis, and age-dating of sediment cores from salt marshes on the south shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, from 2013 through 2014
Coastal Groundwater Chemical Data from the North and South Shores of Long Island, New York
Continuous and optimized 3-arcsecond elevation model for United States east and west coasts
Data compilation of soil respiration, moisture, and temperature measurements from global warming experiments from 1994-2014
Greenhouse gas balances in coastal ecosystems: Current challenges in “blue carbon” estimation and significance to national greenhouse gas inventories
Detection and characterization of coastal tidal wetland change in the northeastern US using Landsat time series
Estimating the aboveground biomass and carbon stocks of tall shrubs in a prerestoration degraded salt marsh
Oxygen-controlled recirculating seepage meter reveals extent of nitrogen transformation in discharging coastal groundwater at the aquifer–estuary interface
Assessment of water quality and discharge in the Herring River, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, November 2015 to September 2017
Pore water exchange-driven inorganic carbon export from intertidal salt marshes
Plant biomass and rates of carbon dioxide uptake are enhanced by successful restoration of tidal connectivity in salt marshes
An important biogeochemical link between organic and inorganic carbon cycling: Effects of organic alkalinity on carbonate chemistry in coastal waters influenced by intertidal salt marshes
Tidal wetland gross primary production across the continental United States, 2000–2019
Phytoplankton community structure response to groundwater-borne nutrients in the inland bays, Delaware
Water salinity and inundation control soil carbon decomposition during salt marsh restoration: An incubation experiment
Salt marsh ecosystem restructuring enhances elevation resilience and carbon storage during accelerating relative sea-level rise
Science and Products
Continuous Monitoring Data From Herring River Wetlands Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 2015-Jan2020
Continuous Monitoring Data From Great Barnstable Marsh on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 2017-19
Tidal marsh biomass field plot and remote sensing datasets for six regions in the conterminous United States (ver. 2.0, June 2020)
Continuous monitoring data from natural and restored salt marshes on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 2016-17
Time-series of biogeochemical and flow data from a tidal salt-marsh creek, Sage Lot Pond, Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts, 2012-2016 (ver. 2.0, July 2023)
Geochemical data supporting analysis of geochemical conditions and nitrogen transport in nearshore groundwater and the subterranean estuary at a Cape Cod embayment, East Falmouth, Massachusetts
Collection, analysis, and age-dating of sediment cores from salt marshes on the south shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, from 2013 through 2014
Coastal Groundwater Chemical Data from the North and South Shores of Long Island, New York
Continuous and optimized 3-arcsecond elevation model for United States east and west coasts
Data compilation of soil respiration, moisture, and temperature measurements from global warming experiments from 1994-2014
Greenhouse gas balances in coastal ecosystems: Current challenges in “blue carbon” estimation and significance to national greenhouse gas inventories
Detection and characterization of coastal tidal wetland change in the northeastern US using Landsat time series
Estimating the aboveground biomass and carbon stocks of tall shrubs in a prerestoration degraded salt marsh
Oxygen-controlled recirculating seepage meter reveals extent of nitrogen transformation in discharging coastal groundwater at the aquifer–estuary interface
Assessment of water quality and discharge in the Herring River, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, November 2015 to September 2017
Pore water exchange-driven inorganic carbon export from intertidal salt marshes
Plant biomass and rates of carbon dioxide uptake are enhanced by successful restoration of tidal connectivity in salt marshes
An important biogeochemical link between organic and inorganic carbon cycling: Effects of organic alkalinity on carbonate chemistry in coastal waters influenced by intertidal salt marshes
Tidal wetland gross primary production across the continental United States, 2000–2019
Phytoplankton community structure response to groundwater-borne nutrients in the inland bays, Delaware
Water salinity and inundation control soil carbon decomposition during salt marsh restoration: An incubation experiment
Salt marsh ecosystem restructuring enhances elevation resilience and carbon storage during accelerating relative sea-level rise
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government