Images

Studying Seafloor Erosion in the Florida Keys

The challenge:

Coverage area for the topo-bathy profiles and their morphologic characteristics across the Atlantic and Gulf coastlines.

When carbonate production is high, coral reefs grow, providing more habitat for biodiversity and additional coastal protection. When carbonate production is too low, bioerosion becomes dominant and the reef is eroded, decreasing the amount of habitat available.

Hurricane tracks for Hugo (1989), Georges (1998), Irma (2017) and Maria (2017). Data provided by NOAA. Base image is intellectual property of Esri and is used herein under license. Copyright Esri and its creator. 

USGS scientific diver BJ Reynolds examines a submarine groundwater well on the seafloor before hooking up the well to a pump on the surface to ensure the wells are working properly and producing groundwater.

Dr. Christopher G. Smith pumps water from a submarine groundwater well on the seafloor through tubing to the R/V Halimeda and uses an instrument called a YSI to measure salinity and ensure the wells are working properly and producing groundwater.

Dr. Christopher G. Smith pumps water from a submarine groundwater well on the seafloor through tubing to the R/V Halimeda and uses an instrument called a YSI to measure salinity and ensure the wells are working properly and producing groundwater.

Dr. Christopher G. Smith pumps water from a submarine groundwater well on the seafloor through tubing to the R/V Halimeda and uses an instrument called a YSI to measure salinity and ensure the wells are working properly and producing groundwater.

USGS scientific diver BJ Reynolds next to a submarine groundwater well on the seafloor. Tubing was hooked up the well to pump groundwater to the surface to ensure the wells are working properly and producing groundwater.

Restored staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) at Looe Key reef in the lower Florida Keys outplanted by Mote Marine Laboratory's coral restoration program.

Our coasts, the most familiar part of the ocean are the gateway to the larger deeper ocean world. USGS studies processes and hazards in the coastal zone and how they affect people, wildlife, and ecosystems.

Photograph of the SPCMSC Core Laboratory’s storage stacks. The SPCMSC Core Laboratory is an archive that houses a collection of nearly 3,000 cores collected by the center and Federal, State, and university partners. These cores have been sampled from diverse study areas including coral reefs, wetlands, beaches, and marine environments from around the world.

The U.S.

The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting research to guide the restoration and recovery of threatened corals in Dry Tortugas National Park and throughout the western Atlantic. Shown here are two colonies of the threatened elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, with a colony of staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, in the center.

The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting research to guide the restoration and recovery of threatened corals in Dry Tortugas National Park and throughout the western Atlantic. Shown here is a colony of the threatened elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, that has grown over the sides of a cinderblock experimental platform.

A vibracore being deployed by USGS staff from the FSU R/V Apalachee for the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). The objective of this field effort was to establish a baseline environmental characterization for a test bed to predict mobility and burial of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in response to waves and currents. 

The USGS Processes Impacting Seafloor Change and Ecosystem Services (PISCES) project team meeting at the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center in May 2022 to coordinate Structure-from-motion (SfM) Quantitative Underwater Imaging Device with 5 cameras (SQUID-5) and diver-based SfM data acquisition and processing for field work.

Caitlin Reynolds retrieving one of the sediment traps used by USGS to study sediment flux in the Gulf of America on board the Research Vessel (R/V) Weatherbird II (Florida Institute of Oceanography).

Eckerd College students taking water samples from a CTD-rosette on board the R/V Weatherbird

Our coasts, the most familiar part of the ocean are the gateway to the larger deeper ocean world. USGS studies processes and hazards in the coastal zone and how they affect people, wildlife, and ecosystems.

An erosion model activity used by the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center to showcase how hurricane-force winds can cause damage to coastal environments.