Images

Photo of waves on the beach at Fire Island

Photo collage of the shoreline, beaches, and dunes at Fire Island

Elkhorn corals (Acropora palmata) on the seafloor along the northeastern coast of Buck Island, U.S. Virgin Islands, have died and collapsed into rubble. As coral reef structure degrades, habitat for marine life is lost and nearby coastlines become more susceptible to storms, waves, and erosion.

Healthy elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) on the seafloor along the southeastern coast of Buck Island, U.S. Virgin Islands. Elkhorn coral is one of many important reef-building species that create 3D structure on the seafloor. Coral reef structure provides habitat for marine life and helps break up waves as they approach the coastline.

A reef core collected from Dry Tortugas National Park. Numbers indicate the depth of penetration into the reef in feet.

A perspective model of the morphology and geologic framework near Petit Bois Island showing the relationships between seafloor features and the subsurface. The barrier islands rest on the island plaftorm. Petis Bois Pass and offshore shoals are clearly visible from the acoustic surveys. The bathymetry, sidescan sonar, and sediment

Banner with photo collage showing researchers in marshy and sandy scenes from the back barrier area of Fire Island, New York.

Time series of the coral reef at Grecian Rocks (Key Largo, FL) illustrating an example of the dramatic decline in live coral on Florida Keys reefs in recent decades. From Shinn and Kuffner (2017).

Views of Cowells Beach in Santa Cruz, California, from a 10-minute video shot on May 6, 2017. Snapshot (first frame in video) on left; time-averaged image on right.

Sandy Brosnahan (left) and Jon Borden at Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) training in Santa Cruz, California.

The 3DR Solo with GoPro Hero4 camera and gimbal. Coming to a beach near you soon.

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of agglutinated planispiral marsh foraminifera Haplophragmoides wilberti collected from Grand Bay.

The 3DR Solo with GoPro Hero4 camera and gimbal. Coming to a survey area near you soon. Photo credit: Shawn Harrison, USGS. This photo was taken during USGS unmanned aerial systems (drone) pilot training. Two training sessions were held - one in February-March 2017 in Santa Cruz, California and the second in April 2017 in Gainesville, Florida.

We use a Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES) to determine the Sr/Ca in coral aragonite samples in the laboratory at the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.

The CMHRP is testing the calcification rates of different genetic strains of threatened Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) to advise local and Federal agencies engaged in coral reef restoration.

“Variance” images derived from the same videos used in the studies. Left, Madeira Beach; right, Cowells Beach. In a variance image, the more variation in light intensity at a given pixel, the brighter the value assigned to that pixel. Bright areas indicate many changes in light intensity, caused by a lot of movement.

Shawn Harrison uses his new skills to check out the surf at Santa Cruz, California.

Examples of sediment dynamics offshore of barrier islands include the development and erosion of shoals, tidal deltas, and sand ridges.

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of calcareous planispiral estuarine foraminifera Cribroelphidium poeyanum collected from Grand Bay estuary.

Orthomosaic images of Matanzas, Florida, from (a) before and (b) after Hurricane Matthew, and (c) a digital elevation model (DEM) showing the associated topographic change. Note, these results were produced by applying Structure-from-Motion (SfM) to NOAA oblique photographs, but similar results can be obtained using UAS aerial imagery.

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of calcareous trochospiral estuarine foraminifera Ammonia tepida collected from Grand Bay estuary