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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

Molluscan aminostratigraphy of the US Mid-Atlantic Quaternary coastal system: Implications for onshore-offshore correlation, paleochannel and barrier island evolution, and local late Quaternary sea-level history

The Quaternary record of the US Mid-Atlantic coastal system includes onshore emergent late Pleistocene shoreline deposits, offshore inner shelf and barrier island units, and paleovalleys formed during multiple glacial stage sea-level lowstands. The geochronology of this coastal system is based on uranium series, radiocarbon, amino acid racemization (AAR), and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL
Authors
John Wehmiller, Laura L. Brothers, Kelvin Ramsey, David S. Foster, C.R. Mattheus, Christopher Hein, Justin L. Shawler
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Quantifying slopes as a driver of forest to marsh conversion using geospatial techniques: Application to Chesapeake Bay coastal-plain, USA

Coastal salt marshes, which provide valuable ecosystem services such as flood mitigation and carbon sequestration, are threatened by rising sea level. In response, these ecosystems migrate landward, converting available upland into salt marsh. In the coastal-plain surrounding Chesapeake Bay, United States, conversion of coastal forest to salt marsh is well-documented and may offset salt marsh loss
Authors
Grace Damore Molino, Zafer Defne, Alfredo Aretxabaleta, Neil K. Ganju, Joel A. Carr
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Climate Research and Development Program, Land Change Science Program, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Chesapeake Bay Activities, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Science storms the cloud

The core tools of science (data, software, and computers) are undergoing a rapid and historic evolution, changing what questions scientists ask and how they find answers. Earth science data are being transformed into new formats optimized for cloud storage that enable rapid analysis of multi-petabyte data sets. Data sets are moving from archive centers to vast cloud data storage, adjacent to massi
Authors
C. L. Gentemann, C. Holdgraf, Ryan Abernathey, D. Crichton, J Colliander, E. J. Kearns, Y Panda, Richard P. Signell
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Pore water exchange-driven inorganic carbon export from intertidal salt marshes

Respiration in intertidal salt marshes generates dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) that is exported to the coastal ocean by tidal exchange with the marsh platform. Understanding the link between physical drivers of water exchange and chemical flux is a key to constraining coastal wetland contributions to regional carbon budgets. The spatial and temporal (seasonal, annual) variability of marsh pore
Authors
Joseph Tamborski, Meagan J. Eagle, Barret L. Kurylyk, Kevin D. Kroeger, Zhaoihui Wang, Paul Henderson, Matthew Charette
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Cloud-native repositories for big scientific data

Scientific data have traditionally been distributed via downloads from data server to local computer. This way of working suffers from limitations as scientific datasets grow toward the petabyte scale. A “cloud-native data repository,” as defined in this article, offers several advantages over traditional data repositories—performance, reliability, cost-effectiveness, collaboration, reproducibilit
Authors
Ryan Abernathey, Tom Augspurger, Anderson Banihirwe, Charles C. Blackmon-Luca, Timothy Crone, Chelle Gentemann, Joseph Hamman, Naomi Henderson, Chiara Lepore, Theo McCaie, Niall Robinson, Richard P. Signell
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Groundwater discharge impacts marine isotope budgets of Li, Mg, Ca, Sr, and Ba

Groundwater-derived solute fluxes to the ocean have long been assumed static and subordinate to riverine fluxes, if not neglected entirely, in marine isotope budgets. Here we present concentration and isotope data for Li, Mg, Ca, Sr, and Ba in coastal groundwaters to constrain the importance of groundwater discharge in mediating the magnitude and isotopic composition of terrestrially derived solut
Authors
Kimberly Mayfield, Anton Eisenhauer, Danielle P. Santiago Ramos, John A. Higgins, Tristan Horner, Maureen Auro, Tomas Magna, Nils Moosdorf, Matthew Charette, Meagan Gonneea Eagle, Carolyn Brady, Nemanja Komar, Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink, Adina Paytan
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Estimating the impact of seep methane oxidation on ocean pH and dissolved inorganic radiocarbon along the U.S. mid‐Atlantic Bight

Ongoing ocean warming can release methane (CH4) currently stored in ocean sediments as free gas and gas hydrates. Once dissolved in ocean waters, this CH4 can be oxidized to carbon dioxide (CO2). While it has been hypothesized that the CO2 produced from aerobic CH4 oxidation could enhance ocean acidification, a previous study conducted in Hudson Canyon shows that CH4 oxidation has a small short‐te
Authors
Fenix Garcia-Tigreros, Mihai Leonte, Carolyn D. Ruppel, Angel Ruiz-Angulo, DoongJoo Joung, Benjamin Young, John D. Kessler
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

On the use of statistical analysis to understand submarine landslide processes and assess their hazard

Because of their inaccessibility, submarine landslides are typically studied individually and at great effort and expense to provide knowledge of the specific site conditions where these landslides occur. Statistical analysis of submarine landslide scars can offer generalized perspectives on the processes that initiate submarine landslides and can help toward hazard assessment in areas that have n
Authors
Uri S. ten Brink, Eric L. Geist
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Limited mantle hydration by bending faults at the Middle America Trench

Seismic anisotropy measurements show that upper mantle hydration at the Middle America Trench (MAT) is limited to serpentinization and/or water in fault zones, rather than distributed uniformly. Subduction of hydrated oceanic lithosphere recycles water back into the deep mantle, drives arc volcanism, and affects seismicity at subduction zones. Constraining the extent of upper mantle hydration is a

Authors
Nathaniel C. Miller, Danile Lizarralde, John A. Collins, Steven Holbrook, Harm van Avendonk
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Subduction Zone Science

Soil organic carbon development and turnover in natural and disturbed salt marsh environments

Salt marsh survival with sea‐level rise (SLR) increasingly relies on soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and preservation. Using a novel combination of geochemical approaches, we characterized fine SOC (≤1 mm) supporting marsh elevation maintenance. Overlaying thermal reactivity, source (δ13C), and age (F14C) information demonstrates several processes contributing to soil development: marsh gra
Authors
Sheron Luk, Katherine Todd-Brown, Meagan J. Eagle, Ann McNichol, Jonathan Sanderman, Kelsey Gosselin, Amanda C. Spivak
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Ideas and perspectives: A strategic assessment of methane and nitrous oxide measurements in the marine environment

>In the current era of rapid climate change, accurate characterization of climate-relevant gas dynamics – namely production, consumption, and net emissions – is required for all biomes, especially those ecosystems most susceptible to the impact of change. Marine environments include regions that act as net sources or sinks for numerous climate-active trace gases including methane (CH4) and nitrous
Authors
S.T. Wilson, A.N. Al-Haj, A. Bourbonnais, C. Frey, R.W. Fulweiler, John D. Kessler, H.K. Marchant, J Milucka, N.E. Ray, P Suntharalingham, B.F. Thornton, R.C. Upstill-Goddard, T.S. Weber, D.L. Arévalo-Martínez, H.W. Bange, H.M. Benway, D. Bianchi, A.V. Borges, B.X. Chang, P.M. Crill, D.A. del Valle, L. Farías, S.B. Joye, A. Kock, J Labidi, C.C. Manning, John Pohlman, G. Rehder, K.J. Sparrow, P.D. Tortell, T. Truede, D.L. Valentine, B.B. Ward, S. Yang, L.N. Yurganov
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Evaluation of a roughness length parametrization accounting for wind–wave alignment in a coupled atmosphere–wave model

The importance of wind energy as an alternative energy source has increased over the latest years with more focus on offshore winds. A good estimation of the offshore winds is thus of major importance for this industry. Up to now the effect of the wind–wave (mis)alignment has not yet been taken into account in coupled atmosphere–wave models to study the vertical wind profile and power production e
Authors
Sara Porchetta, O. Temel, John C. Warner, J.C. Muñoz-Esparza, J Monbaliu, J. van Beeck, N. van Lipzig
By
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center