The USGS is monitoring Lake Accotink, Accotink Creek, and Long Branch to better understand sediment flow into and out of the lake.
Spencer J. Tassone, Ph.D.
I am an aquatic ecologist interested in water quality, extreme events, and data science. My research focuses on heatwaves, algal blooms, ecosystem resilience, and metabolism, often extending from headwater streams to the coastal ocean.
I joined the USGS in July 2024 as a biologist with the Virginia-West Virginia Water Science Center. Before that, I was a postdoc at Michigan Tech, where I studied how climate change is affecting the Lake Superior basin and its impact on the hydrology and water quality of streams in tribal and national park lands. My dissertation research quantified heatwaves in rivers and estuaries across the United States, heatwave propagation across the water-sediment interface, and the resilience of seagrass to disturbance events. Additionally, I served on a Science and Technical Advisory Committee addressing rising water temperatures in both tidal and non-tidal areas of Chesapeake Bay. During my undergraduate and masters studies, my research focused on ecosystem metabolism and harmful algal blooms in estuarine ecosystems.
Science and Products
Lake Accotink Sedimentation Study
Lake Accotink is a 55-acre lake in Fairfax County which is highly valued by the local community. Much like a living organism, lakes go through many changes. Several factors affect their health and well-being such as sediment buildup. As the lake fills with sediment, it loses surface area and volume. Lake Accotink has been dredged in the past to remove excess sediment, but this process is costly...
Fairfax County Water Resources Monitoring Network
In recent years, hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested into the implementation of Best Management Practices in Fairfax County, Virginia, with the goal of improving water quality. Research has demonstrated that best management practices are effective at smaller scales, but less information is available to document the effectiveness of these best management practices at the watershed...
Fairfax County Lake Accotink Sedimentation Study
The USGS is monitoring Lake Accotink, Accotink Creek, and Long Branch to better understand sediment flow into and out of the lake.
Science and Products
Lake Accotink Sedimentation Study
Lake Accotink is a 55-acre lake in Fairfax County which is highly valued by the local community. Much like a living organism, lakes go through many changes. Several factors affect their health and well-being such as sediment buildup. As the lake fills with sediment, it loses surface area and volume. Lake Accotink has been dredged in the past to remove excess sediment, but this process is costly...
Fairfax County Water Resources Monitoring Network
In recent years, hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested into the implementation of Best Management Practices in Fairfax County, Virginia, with the goal of improving water quality. Research has demonstrated that best management practices are effective at smaller scales, but less information is available to document the effectiveness of these best management practices at the watershed...
Fairfax County Lake Accotink Sedimentation Study
The USGS is monitoring Lake Accotink, Accotink Creek, and Long Branch to better understand sediment flow into and out of the lake.
The USGS is monitoring Lake Accotink, Accotink Creek, and Long Branch to better understand sediment flow into and out of the lake.
*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