Coastal Habitats in Puget Sound
Science Center Objects
A Pacific Northwest icon, Puget Sound is the second-largest estuary in the United States. Its unique geology, climate, and nutrient-rich waters produce and sustain biologically productive coastal habitats. These same natural characteristics also contribute to a high quality of life that has led to growth in human population and urbanization. This growth has played a role in degrading the Sound, including declines in fish and wildlife populations, water-quality issues, and changes in coastal habitats. Natural resource managers look to the USGS as a critical science resource needed to solve problems in this important ecosystem.
The deterioration of the Puget Sound nearshore is of special concern — the area extending from the top of shoreline bluffs to a depth offshore where sunlight does not reach the bottom, and upstream in estuaries to the head of tidal influence. It includes bluffs, beaches, mudflats, kelp and eelgrass beds, salt marshes, gravel spits, and estuaries. Because the nearshore is one of the most productive parts of the Sound, improved understanding of it is vital to restoration and preservation of the entire Sound.
To develop a restoration program, Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments, non-governmental organizations, universities, and private industry joined in 2001 to create the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project (PSNERP). In December 2005, protection and restoration of Puget Sound was expanded in scope with the creation of the Puget Sound Partnership. As a task force within the Governor of Washington's Puget Sound Initiative, the Puget Sound Partnership's goal is to develop recommendations to restore the Sound by 2020.
The overall scientific goal of the CHIPS project is to provide scientific support for ecosystem recovery activities in Puget Sound. Through its diverse studies, the CHIPS project strives to demonstrate a structure and process for conducting interdisciplinary ecosystem science.
PS-CoSMoS: Puget Sound Coastal Storm Modeling System
The CoSMoS model is currently available for most of the California coast and is now being expanded to support the 4.5 million coastal residents of the Puget Sound region, with emphasis on the communities bordering the sound.
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Date published: December 16, 2020Status: ActiveEstuaries and large river deltas in the Pacific Northwest
Essential habitat for wild salmon and other wildlife borders river deltas and estuaries in the Pacific Northwest. These estuaries also support industry, agriculture, and a large human population that’s expected to double by the year 2060, but each could suffer from more severe river floods, higher sea level, and storm surges caused by climate change.
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Date published: November 29, 2019Status: CompletedUsing Video Imagery to Study Coastal Change: Whidbey Island
From May of 2018 through November of 2019, USGS scientists collected imagery from video cameras overlooking the coast along a beach on Whidbey Island, Island County at the northern boundary of Puget Sound in western Washington.
Contacts: Eric Grossman
Long-term changes in kelp forests in an inner basin of the Salish Sea
Kelp forests form an important biogenic habitat that responds to natural and human drivers. Global concerns exist about threats to kelp forests, yet long-term information is limited and research suggests that trends are geographically distinct. We examined distribution of the bull kelp Nereocystis luetkeana over 145 years in South Puget...
Berry, H.D.; Mumford, T.F.; Calloway, M.; Ferrier, L.; Christiaen, B.; vanArendonk, Nathan R.; Grossman, Eric E.; Dowty, P. An assessment of vertical land movement to support coastal hazards planning in Washington state
The sea and land change elevation spatially and temporally from a multitude of processes, so it is necessary to constrain the movement of both to evaluate how coastlines will evolve and how those evolving coastlines will impact the natural and built environment over time. We combine land movement observations from global navigation satellite...
Newton, Tyler; Weldon, Ray; Miller, Ian M.; Schmidt, David; Morgan, Harriet; Grossman, Eric; Mauger, Guillaume S Distribution and transport of Olympia oyster, Ostrea lurida, larvae in northern Puget Sound, Washington, USA
As efforts for restoring Olympia oyster (Ostrea lurida) populations have expanded, there is an increased need to understand local factors that could influence the long-term success of these projects. To address concerns over potential limitations to recruitment at a restoration site in northern Puget Sound, Washington, USA, a study was developed...
Grossman, S.K.; Grossman, Eric E.; Barber, Julie S.; Gamblewood, S.K.; Crosby, Sean C Sediment transport in a restored, river-influenced Pacific Northwest estuary
Predicting the success of future investments in coastal and estuarine ecosystem restorations is limited by scarce data quantifying sediment budgets and transport processes of prior restorations. This study provides detailed analyses of the hydrodynamics and sediment fluxes of a recently restored U.S. Pacific Northwest estuary, a 61 ha former...
Nowacki, Daniel J. ; Grossman, Eric E.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and metals in ambient sediment at mussel biomonitoring sites, Puget Sound, Washington
Caged mussels used as biomonitors can provide insights about ambient contaminant assemblages and spatial patterns, sources of contaminants, and contaminant exposure risks for consumers of wild and farmed mussels. This study explored the potential role of ambient sediment in the uptake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated...
Takesue, Renee K.; Campbell‐Swarzenski, Pamela L.; Conn, Kathleen E. Extreme coastal water level in Washington state: Guidance to support sea level rise planning
This document provides guidelines for assessing exposure to future coastal flooding during extreme coastal water level events – whether these are due to tides, surge, wave run-up, or, more likely, a combination of the three. These guidelines provide information about the current and future magnitude of extreme coastal water levels across...
Yang, Z.; Mauger, G.S.; Morgan, H.F.; Miller, I.M.; vanArendonk, Nathan R.; Grossman, Eric E.
Sediment storage and transport in the Nooksack River basin, northwestern Washington, 2006–15
The Nooksack River is a dynamic gravel-bedded river in northwestern Washington, draining off Mount Baker and the North Cascades into Puget Sound. Working in cooperation with the Whatcom County Flood Control Zone District, the U.S. Geological Survey studied topographic, hydrologic, and climatic data for the Nooksack River basin to document recent...
Anderson, Scott W.; Konrad, Christopher P.; Grossman, Eric E.; Curran, Christopher A. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the Pacific sand lance, Puget Sound, Washington
Forage fish are small, abundant, schooling planktivores that form a critical link in marine food webs by transferring energy from plankton up to birds, fishes, and marine mammals. Forage fishes in Puget Sound include the iconic Pacific herring as well as lesser known species such as surf smelt and the Pacific sand lance. There are significant...
Liedtke, Theresa; Conn, Kathleen; Dinicola, Richard; Takesue, Renee Sources, timing, and fate of sediment and contaminants in the nearshore: insights from geochemistry
Rivers in Cascade watersheds carry sediment with a volcanic composition that is distinct from the plutonic composition of the Puget lowlands. Compositional properties (signatures) allow discrimination of river-sourced Cascade from lowland sediment, and inferences about transport pathways. Surface sediment on land contains atmospheric radionuclides...
Takesue, Renee K.; Conn, Kathleen E.; Dutch, Margaret
Contaminant baselines and sediment provenance along the Puget Sound Energy Transport Corridor, 2015
The transport of coal and oil can result in contaminated soil, water, and organisms from unintended releases. Trains carrying coal and crude oil regularly pass through Puget Sound, Washington, and an increase in the number of coal and oil trains is expected in the future. This study characterized levels of potentially toxic contaminants in...
Takesue, Renee K.; Campbell, Pamela L. Conceptualizing ecological responses to dam removal: If you remove it, what's to come?
One of the desired outcomes of dam decommissioning and removal is the recovery of aquatic and riparian ecosystems. To investigate this common objective, we synthesized information from empirical studies and ecological theory into conceptual models that depict key physical and biological links driving ecological responses to removing dams. We...
Bellmore, J. Ryan; Pess, George R.; Duda, Jeffrey J.; O'Connor, Jim E.; East, Amy E.; Foley, Melissa M.; Wilcox, Andrew C.; Major, Jon J.; Shafroth, Patrick B.; Morley, Sarah A.; Magirl, Christopher S.; Anderson, Chauncey W.; Evans, James E.; Torgersen, Christian E.; Craig, Laura S. Geomorphic evolution of a gravel‐bed river under sediment‐starved vs. sediment‐rich conditions: River response to the world's largest dam removal
Understanding river response to sediment pulses is a fundamental problem in geomorphic process studies, with myriad implications for river management. However, because large sediment pulses are rare and usually unanticipated, they are seldom studied at field scale. We examine fluvial response to a massive (~20 Mt) sediment pulse released by...
East, Amy E.; Logan, Joshua B.; Mastin, Mark C.; Ritchie, Andrew C.; Bountry, Jennifer A.; Magirl, Christopher S.; Sankey, Joel B.-
Date published: February 22, 2021Aerial imagery and structure-from-motion data products from UAS survey of the intertidal zone at Puget Creek and Dickman Mill Park, Ruston Way, Tacoma, WA, June 2019
An unmanned aerial system (UAS) was used to acquire high-resolution imagery of the intertidal zone at Puget Creek and Dickman Mill Park in Tacoma, Washington on June 3, 2019. This imagery was processed using structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetric techniques to derive high-resolution digital surface models (DSM), orthomosaic imagery, and topographic point clouds.
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Date published: February 22, 2021Aerial imagery and structure-from-motion data products from UAS survey of the intertidal zone at Post Point, Bellingham Bay, WA, June 2019
An unmanned aerial system (UAS) was used to acquire high-resolution imagery of the intertidal zone at Post Point in Bellingham Bay, Washington on June 6, 2019. This imagery was processed using structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetric techniques to derive high-resolution digital surface models (DSM), orthomosaic imagery, and topographic point clouds.
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Date published: December 2, 2020Geochemistry of fine-grained sediment in Bellingham Bay, Nooksack River, and small creeks from June 2017 to September 2019
Elemental compositions are reported for the fine fraction of surface sediments from Bellingham Bay (June 2017 and March 2019) and in the fine fraction of streambank sediment from the Nooksack River (September 2017, March 2019, September 2019), Squalicum Creek (March and September 2019), Whatcom Creek (March and September 2019), and Padden Creek (March and September 201
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Date published: July 21, 2020Eelgrass distributions and bathymetry of the Nisqually River delta, Washington
This data release presents eelgrass distributions and bathymetric data from repeated surveys performed on the Nisqually River delta to document interannual changes in eelgrass abundance and coastal morphology following the removal of dikes in 2009 that restored tidal processes to over 300 ha of former freshwater wetlands. Includes data collected in 2012, 2014, and 2017, with more to be added...
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Date published: May 19, 2020Oceanographic measurements collected in the Stillaguamish River Delta, Port Susan, Washington, USA from March 2014 to July 2015
This data release includes time-series and discrete measurements made within two breaches constructed in a former flood-control levee of a restored agricultural area in Port Susan, Washington. An area of approximately 61 ha near the mouth of the Stillaguamish River was reconnected to tidal flow via levee breaches as part of a larger restoration effort that took place in 2012. These...
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Date published: January 1, 2019Wave observations from bottom-mounted pressure sensors in Bellingham Bay, Washington from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018
RBRduo pressure and temperature sensors (early 2015 generation), mounted on aluminum frames, were moored in shallow (< 6 m) water depths in Bellingham Bay, Washington, to capture wave heights and periods. Continuous pressure fluctuations are transformed into surface-wave observations of wave heights, periods, and frequency spectra at 30-minute intervals.
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Date published: January 1, 2019Wave observations from bottom-mounted pressure sensors in Skagit Bay, Washington from Dec 2017 to Feb 2018
RBRduo pressure and temperature sensors (early 2015 generation), mounted on aluminum frames, were moored in shallow (< 6 m) water depths in Skagit Bay to capture wave heights and periods. Continuous pressure fluctuations are transformed into surface-wave observations of wave heights, periods, and frequency spectra at 30-minute intervals.
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Date published: November 13, 2018Chinook Salmon Use of Eelgrass Habitats Skagit River Delta Washington
The degree to which eelgrass on river deltas provides critical habitat for estuarine fishes, especially out‐migrating juvenile salmon, is an important scientific and management issue that bears on efforts to conserve and restore both eelgrass and fish.
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Date published: July 12, 2018Data collected in 2008-2010 to evaluate juvenile salmon and forage fish use of eelgrass on the Skagit River Delta, Washington State, USA
Data are abundance and body size (length) of juvenile salmon, forage fish, and other species captured with a lampara net in eelgrass and nearby unvegetated habitat on the Skagit River Delta monthly, April-September, 2008-2010, as well as vegetation status, water depth, temperature, salinity, and clarity for each fish netting event.
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Date published: February 21, 2018High-resolution bathymetry and acoustic-backscatter data collected in 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2010 in Skagit Bay, Washington
This data release provides the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2010 bathymetry data that was collected in Skagit Bay, Washington as well as a merged 2005-2010 bathymetry grid. Also, this data release provides the acoustic-backscatter as a merged 2005-2010 backscatter image.
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Date published: May 29, 2019USGS participates in Puget Sound Day on the Hill
Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center director Guy Gelfenbaum and NW Region Staff Scientist Bill Labiosa represented the USGS in the Puget Sound Day on the Hill in Washington, D.C. May 14 - 16, 2019.
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Date published: May 30, 2018Video cameras monitor coastal change on Whidbey Island, Washington
Video cameras installed by the USGS Remote Sensing Coastal Change project overlook the coast on Whidbey Island, Washington, about 25 miles north of Seattle.