Publications

Diatoms are unicellular phytoplankton (microscopic plant-like organisms) with cell walls made of silica (called a frustule). They live in both freshwater and saltwater and can be found in just about every place on Earth that is wet. The shape and morphology of the diatom frustule unique to each species are used for identification. Due to the microscopic size of diatoms, high-power...

Hurricane Gustav, a category 2 storm with 170 kilometers per hour (km/h) winds, approached the Louisiana coast from the south-southeast, making landfall near Cocodrie, La., on September 1, 2008 (Beven and Kimberlain, 2009); Hurricane Ike, a category 2 storm with 175 km/h winds, approached the Texas coast from the southeast, paralleling offshore of the Louisiana coast, before making...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coral Reef Ecosystem STudies (CREST) Project specifically addresses priorities identified in the 'Facing tomorrow's challenges' U.S. Geological Survey science in the decade 2007-2017' document (USGS, 2007). Research includes a blend of historical, monitoring, and process studies aimed at improving our understanding of the development, current status and...

Tropical cyclones that enter or form in the Gulf of Mexico generate storm surge and large waves that impact low-lying coastlines along the Gulf Coast. The Chandeleur Islands, located 161. km east of New Orleans, Louisiana, have endured numerous hurricanes that have passed nearby. Hurricane Katrina (landfall near Waveland MS, 29 Aug 2005) caused dramatic changes to the island elevation...

Paleoclimatologists have reconstructed century-long records of sea surface temperature (SST) in the Pacific using the Sr/Ca of massive corals, whereas similar reconstructions in the Atlantic have not proceeded at the same pace. Past research in the Florida Keys has focused on Montastrea spp., an abundant and fast-growing massive coral, thus a good candidate for climate reconstructions...

Little is known about the distribution and abundance of viruses in deep-sea cold-seep environments. Like hydrothermal vents, seeps support communities of macrofauna that are sustained by chemosynthetic bacteria. Sediments close to these communities are hypothesized to be more microbiologically active and therefore to host higher numbers of viruses than non-seep areas. Push cores were...

In 2006 and 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and collaborators at the University of New Orleans (UNO) collected high-resolution seismic profiles and subsurface cores around the Chandeleur and Breton Islands, Louisiana (Study Area Map). To ground-truth the acoustic seismic surveys conducted in 2006, 124 vibracores were acquired during the 07SCC04 and 07SCC05 cruises in 2007. These...

These remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements of lidar-derived bare-earth (BE) and first-surface (FS) topography datasets were produced collaboratively by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, FL, and the National Park Service (NPS), Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network, Kingston, RI. This project...

Coral diseases have caused significant losses on Caribbean reefs and are becoming a greater concern in the Pacific. Progress in coral disease research requires collaboration and communication among experts from many different disciplines. The lack of consistency in the use of terms and names in the recent scientific literature reflects the absence of an authority for naming coral...

A 2DH numerical, model which is capable of computing nearshore circulation and morphodynamics, including dune erosion, breaching and overwash, is used to simulate overwash caused by Hurricane Ivan (2004) on a barrier island. The model is forced using parametric wave and surge time series based on field data and large-scale numerical model results. The model predicted beach face and dune...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coral Reef Ecosystem Studies (CREST) Project is analyzing corals from various sites in the Caribbean region, Dry Tortugas National Park, Biscayne National Park, other areas of the Florida Keys, and the Virgin Islands. The objective of this project is to develop records of past environmental change to better our understanding of climate variability. The...

These remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements of lidar-derived first-surface (FS) topography datasets were produced collaboratively by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, FL, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Wallops Flight Facility, VA. This project provides highly...