Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center in the Field
Science Center Objects
In the Field, June 2019
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center scientists and staff study coastal and ocean resources and processes from the land, sea, and air, to shorelines and estuaries to the continental shelf, deep sea, lake floor, river bottoms and shallow subsurfaces environments.
Dr. Meagan Gonneea checks on instruments at a tidal creek in Great Pond, Falmouth, MA. Daily tides drive exchange between coastal wetlands and adjacent estuaries. Here we have instrumented a tidal channel to measure those fluxes over a tidal cycle. When the marsh floods, material is imported from the estuary. Biogeochemical cycles within the wetland, driven by plants and microbes in the soil, can alter that material prior to export back to the estuary. Coastal wetlands are critical coastal boundaries.
(Credit: Priya Ganguli, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center. Public domain.)