Images

The left panel shows the threatened elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) alive and performing the critical ecosystem service of building the reef crest that protects shorelines during storms. The right panel shows a dead and quickly eroding skeleton of Elkhorn Coral.

Fire Island is a 50-km long barrier island along the south shore of Long Island, NY. The island is comprised of seventeen year-round communities; federal, state, and county parks; and supports distinct ecosystems alongside areas of economic and cultural value.

Fire Island is a 50-km long barrier island along the south shore of Long Island, NY. The island is comprised of seventeen year-round communities; federal, state, and county parks; and supports distinct ecosystems alongside areas of economic and cultural value.

Fire Island is a 50-km long barrier island along the south shore of Long Island, NY. The island is comprised of seventeen year-round communities; federal, state, and county parks; and supports distinct ecosystems alongside areas of economic and cultural value.

USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

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.

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

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

Photo of waves on the beach at Fire Island

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.

Using the computer-driven triaxial micro-milling machine to subsample a coral slab. 

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

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

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

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of agglutinated marsh foraminifera Entzia macrescens.

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

Low dunes near Cape Canaveral launch pads 39A and 39B often overwash during storm events, transporting sand landward. Critical infrastructure may be buried or flooded. In addition, significant landward transport of sand may lead to extensive shoreline erosion.

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).

Gerry Hatcher (left) and Shawn Harrison work on their video-camera station atop a hotel in Santa Cruz, California.

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.

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