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Publications

Explore scientific publications from the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.

Filter Total Items: 912

Response of Everglades tree islands to environmental change

Tree islands are centers of biodiversity within the Florida Everglades, USA, but the factors controlling their distribution, formation, and development are poorly understood. We use pollen assemblages from tree islands throughout the greater Everglades ecosystem to reconstruct the timing of tree island formation, patterns of development, and response to specific climatic and environmental stressor
Authors
Debra A. Willard, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Charles W. Holmes, Bryan Landacre, Marci E. Marot

Aerobiology and the global transport of desert dust

Desert winds aerosolize several billion tons of soil-derived dust each year, including concentrated seasonal pulses from Africa and Asia. These transoceanic and transcontinental dust events inject a large pulse of microorganisms and pollen into the atmosphere and could therefore have a role in transporting pathogens or expanding the biogeographical range of some organisms by facilitating long-dist
Authors
Christina A. Kellogg, Dale W. Griffin

Reconnaissance investigation of Caribbean extreme wave deposits — Preliminary observations, interpretations, and research directions

 This report presents an overview of preliminary geological investigations and recommended future research activities in the Caribbean region pertaining to coastal hazards with an emphasis on establishing tsunami risk for U.S. territories. Fieldwork was conducted in March 2006 on the islands of Bonaire, Puerto Rico, and Guadeloupe to evaluate the stratigraphic records of extreme wave deposits as p
Authors
Robert A. Morton, Bruce M. Richmond, Bruce E. Jaffe, Guy Gelfenbaum

Extracting shorelines from NASA airborne topographic lidar-derived digital elevation models

This report documents part of the National Park Service (NPS)/U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aerial Data Collection and Creation of Products for Park Vital Signs Project. This report is one in a series that describes methods for extracting topographic features from aerial survey data as part of a joint project among the NPS Inventory and Monitori
Authors
M. Harris, J. Brock, A. Nayegandhi, M. Duffy

Along-Track Reef Imaging System (ATRIS)

"Along-Track Reef Imaging System (ATRIS)" describes the U.S. Geological Survey's Along-Track Reef Imaging System, a boat-based sensor package for rapidly mapping shallow water benthic environments. ATRIS acquires high resolution, color digital images that are accurately geo-located in real-time.
Authors
John Brock, Dave Zawada

usSEABED: Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean (Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands) offshore surficial sediment data release

Over the past 50 years there has been an explosion in scientific interest, research effort and information gathered on the geologic sedimentary character of the United States continental margin. Data and information from thousands of publications have greatly increased our scientific understanding of the geologic origins of the shelf surface but rarely have those data been combined and integrated.
Authors
Brian J. Buczkowski, Jane A. Reid, Chris J. Jenkins, Jamey M. Reid, S. Jeffress Williams, James G. Flocks

Identification and extraction of the seaward edge of terrestrial vegetation using digital aerial photography

This report is created as part of the Aerial Data Collection and Creation of Products for Park Vital Signs Monitoring within the Northeast Region Coastal and Barrier Network project, which is a joint project between the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program (NPS-IM), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Observational Sciences Branch, and the U.S. Geological Sur
Authors
Melanie Harris, John Brock, A. Nayegandhi, M. Duffy, C. W. Wright

EAARL topography: Dry Tortugas National Park

This lidar-derived submarine topography map was produced as a collaborative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program, National Park Service (NPS) South Florida/Caribbean Network Inventory and Monitoring Program, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Wallops Flight Facility. One objective of this research is to create techniques to s
Authors
John Brock, C. Wayne Wright, Matt Patterson, Amar Nayegandhi, Judd Patterson

Geochemistry of the Amazon Estuary

The Amazon River supplies more freshwater to the ocean than any other river in the world. This enormous volume of freshwater forces the estuarine mixing out of the river channel and onto the continental shelf. On the continental shelf, the estuarine mixing occurs in a very dynamic environment unlike that of a typical estuary. The tides, the wind, and the boundary current that sweeps the continenta
Authors
Joseph M. Smoak, James M. Krest, Peter W Swarzenski

Hurricanes 2004: An overview of their characteristics and coastal change

Four hurricanes battered the state of Florida during 2004, the most affecting any state since Texas endured four in 1884. Each of the storms changed the coast differently. Average shoreline change within the right front quadrant of hurricane force winds varied from 1 m of shoreline advance to 20 m of retreat, whereas average sand volume change varied from 11 to 66 m3 m−1 of net loss (erosion). The
Authors
Asbury H. Sallenger, Hilary Stockdon, Laura A. Fauver, Mark Hansen, David Thompson, C. Wayne Wright, Jeff Lillycrop

Sand mining impacts on long-term dune erosion in southern Monterey Bay

Southern Monterey Bay was the most intensively mined shoreline (with sand removed directly from the surf zone) in the U.S. during the period from 1906 until 1990, when the mines were closed following hypotheses that the mining caused coastal erosion. It is estimated that the yearly averaged amount of mined sand between 1940 and 1984 was 128,000 m3/yr, which is approximately 50% of the yearly avera
Authors
E.B. Thornton, Abby Sallenger, Juan Conforto Sesto, L. Egley, Timothy McGee, Rost Parsons

The ecological importance of mangroves in Baja California Sur: conservation implications for an endangered ecosystem

No abstract available
Authors
Robert C. Whitmore, R.C. Brusca, P. Gonzalez-Zamorano, R. Mendoza-Salgado, E.S. Amador-Silva, G. Holquin, C. C. McIvor, F. Galvan-Magana, J.A. Seminoff, J.L. de la Luz