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Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center is one of three centers serving the mission of the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program—the primary Federal marine geology and physical science research program responsible for the Nation’s entire coastal and marine landscape. 

News

USGS Coastal Landscape Change Products Help the U.S. Department of Defense Safeguard Military Infrastructure Along the Coast

USGS Coastal Landscape Change Products Help the U.S. Department of Defense Safeguard Military Infrastructure Along the Coast

What are Key Conditions for Marsh Survival Amid Rising Seas?

What are Key Conditions for Marsh Survival Amid Rising Seas?

We Make Treasure Maps: USGS Charts the Seafloor to Help Locate Critical Minerals, Precious Metals, and Other Vital Resources

We Make Treasure Maps: USGS Charts the Seafloor to Help Locate Critical Minerals, Precious Metals, and Other Vital Resources

Publications

Ecological thresholds and transformations due to climate change: The role of abiotic stress

An ecological threshold is the point at which a comparatively small environmental change triggers an abrupt and disproportionately large ecological response. In the face of accelerating climate change, there is concern that abrupt ecosystem transformations will become more widespread as critical ecological thresholds are crossed. There has been ongoing debate, however, regarding the...
Authors
Michael Osland, John B. Bradford, Lauren Toth, Matthew Germino, James Grace, Judith Z. Drexler, Camille Stagg, Eric E. Grossman, Karen M. Thorne, Stephanie Romanach, Davina Passeri, Gregory Noe, Jessica R. Lacy, Ken Krauss, Kurt P. Kowalski, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, Neil K. Ganju, Nicholas Enwright, Joel A. Carr, Kristin B. Byrd, Kevin Buffington

Distribution and disturbances of ditches across salt marshes of the Northeast U.S. with implications for management and restoration

Effective management of valuable coastal systems, such as salt marshes requires an understanding of the complex stressors influencing their continued threat of drowning. However, efforts to determine the effects of one potential stressor, ditches, have produced diverging results complicating management efforts. Ditches (linear trenches dug to drain salt marshes for agriculture and...
Authors
Erin K. Peck, Julie E. Walker, Kate Ackerman, Joel A. Carr, Maureen D. Correll, Zafer Defne, Linda A. Deegan, Mitchell Eaton, Neil K. Ganju, Mitch Hartley, Catherine Johnson, Jason J Mercer, Katharine J. Ruskin, Jonathan D. Woodruff, Brian Yellen

Tracking diagenetic alteration of magnetic susceptibility in thrust ridge and slope basin sediments of the Cascadia margin (ODP Sites 1249 and 1252; IODP Site U1325)

We investigated sediment core records from the Cascadia Margin (Ocean Drilling Program Sites 1249 and 1252 at Hydrate Ridge; Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site U1325 offshore Vancouver Island) using a Zr/Rb heavy mineral proxy from X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning to identify intervals of primary detrital magnetic susceptibility (κ) and predict intervals where diagenesis caused...
Authors
Stephen C. Phillips, Joel E. Johnson, William Clyde, Wei-Li Hong, Jacob Setera, Marta E. Torres

Science

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Seafloor Benthic Mapping and Characterization: Enhancing our Understanding of Aleutian Islands’ Hazards, Potential Seabed Minerals and Deep Corals

A USGS-led expedition in the Aleutian Arc off Alaska will provide critical information on energy resources, underwater earthquakes and other hazards, seafloor habitats, and biological resources, including key fisheries, as well as potential seabed minerals.
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Coastal Wetland Vulnerability to Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise: Understanding Ecological Thresholds and Ecosystem Transformations

Eighteen USGS coastal scientists from all four coasts of the conterminous United States are working together to advance the understanding of climate change and sea-level rise impacts to coastal wetlands.
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Environmental Impacts following the 1970 Testing of Seabed Mining Equipment on the Blake Plateau- Quantification of Benthic Communities Across Disturbance Gradients

USGS researchers will characterize the ecology of benthic communities associated with deep-sea environments, including hardground features and adjacent soft sediments, and will build upon previous work conducted in areas off the U.S. east coast under consideration for oil and gas leases.
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Environmental Impacts following the 1970 Testing of Seabed Mining Equipment on the Blake Plateau- Quantification of Benthic Communities Across Disturbance Gradients

USGS researchers will characterize the ecology of benthic communities associated with deep-sea environments, including hardground features and adjacent soft sediments, and will build upon previous work conducted in areas off the U.S. east coast under consideration for oil and gas leases.
Learn More
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