Mark Buckley is a Research Oceanographer at the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.
As a Research Oceanographer at the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Mark Buckley studies nearshore environments through field, laboratory, and numerical modelling techniques. A primary focus of Mark’s research is on understanding nearshore wave dynamics and how the structure and roughness of coral reefs effects these processes.
Professional Experience
2020-present Research Oceanographer, U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg Coastal & Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg, FL
2018-2020 Research Assistant Professor, The University of Western Australia,
2016-2018 Mendenhall Research Fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Pacific Coastal & Marine Science Center, Santa Cruz, CA
2007-2011 Oceanographer, U.S. Geological Survey, Pacific Coastal & Marine Science Center, Santa Cruz, CA
Education and Certifications
2016 Ph.D., Physical Oceanography, The University of Western Australia
2009 M.S., Ocean Engineering, University of Rhode Island
2006 B.A., Physical Oceanography, University of San Diego
Science and Products
Water level and velocity measurements from the 2012 University of Western Australia Fringing Reef Experiment (UWAFRE)
This data release contains water level and velocity measurements from wave runup experiments performed in a laboratory flume setting. Wave-driven water level variability (and runup at the shoreline) is a significant cause of coastal flooding induced by storms. Wave runup is challenging to predict, particularly along tropical coral reef-fringed coastlines due to the steep bathymetric profiles and l
Filter Total Items: 18
Wave runup and inundation dynamics on a perched beach
Sandy beaches perched over rocky shore platforms are common globally, yet their mixed sand and rocky morphology present challenges for quantifying and predicting wave runup and inundation. For typical linear beach profiles, simple relationships can be made between vertical runup and horizontal inundation based on beach slope. However, as topographic irregularities increase, substantial deviations
Authors
Carly Portch, Michael Cuttler, Mark L. Buckley, Jeff Hansen, Ryan Lowe
Carbonate sediment transport across coral reefs: A comparison of fringing vs. barrier reefs
Considerable uncertainty remains in the budgets of carbonate sediment on reef lined coasts, particularly with respect to the supply of sediment to a reef flat that is then transported throughout a reef system. In this study, we re-examine two recent studies, one on a barrier reef bounded by channels that incise the reef, and one on a fringing reef without channels. Results indicate that the presen
Authors
Kurt J. Rosenberger, Curt Storlazzi, Olivia Cheriton, Mark L. Buckley, Andrew Pomeroy, Ryan Lowe, Jeff Hansen
Modeling total water level and coastal change at Pea Island, North Carolina, USA
The DUring Nearshore Event eXperiment (DUNEX) was carried out on Pea Island, North Carolina, USA between September-October 2021. We use a coupled numerical model (Windsurf) to hindcast the evolution of the DUNEX transect and produce a time series of hourly water levels at the shoreline from the model output. In addition to assessing the ability of Windsurf to reproduce TWL, we use model output pai
Authors
Michael Christopher Itzkin, Margaret Louise Palmsten, Mark L. Buckley, Christopher R. Sherwood, Jenna A. Brown, Jin-Si R. Over, Peter A. Traykovski
Wave-scale observations of sediment resuspension and subsequent transport across a fringing reef flat
During a 3-month deployment on a broad, fringing reef flat in Moloka’i, Hawai’i, we observed over 28,000 wave-driven resuspension (WDR) events of coarse-grained sediment in order to identify major factors. These events were short-lived (2-11 s) and distinct from the longer-duration patterns of water-column backscatter. The wave-driven transport of WDR events was onshore, but the net cross-shore tr
Authors
Olivia Cheriton, Curt Storlazzi, Kurt J. Rosenberger, Joshua B. Logan, Andrew W. M. Pomeroy, Mark L. Buckley, Jeff E. Hansen, Ryan J. Lowe
Wave-scale observations of coarse-grained sediment resuspension and subsequent transport across a fringing reef flat, Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi, USA
During a 3-month deployment on a broad, fringing reef flat in Moloka’i, Hawai’i, we observed over 28,000 wave-driven resuspension (WDR) events of coarse-grained sediment in order to identify major factors. These events were short-lived (2-11 s) and distinct from the longer-duration patterns of water-column backscatter. The wave-driven transport of WDR events was onshore, but the net cross-shore tr
Authors
Olivia Cheriton, Curt Storlazzi, Kurt J. Rosenberger, Joshua B. Logan, Andrew W. M. Pomeroy, Mark L. Buckley, Jeff E. Hansen, Ryan J. Lowe
Free long wave transformation in the nearshore zone through partial reflections
Long waves play an important role in coastal inundation and shoreline and dune erosion, requiring a detailed understanding of their evolution in nearshore regions and interaction with shorelines. While their generation and dissipation mechanisms are relatively well understood, there are fewer studies describing how reflection processes govern their propagation in the nearshore. We propose a new ap
Authors
Stephanie Contardo, Ryan J. Lowe, Francois Dufois, Jeff E. Hansen, Mark L. Buckley, Graham Symonds
Dynamics of the wave-driven circulation in the lee of nearshore reefs
Nearshore rocky reefs with scales of order 10–100 m are common along the world's coastline and often shape wave-driven hydrodynamics and shoreline morphology in their lee. The interaction of waves with these reefs generally results in either two or four-cell mean circulation systems (2CC and 4CC, respectively), with diverging flows behind the reefs and at the shoreline in the 2CC case and flows th
Authors
Renan F. da Silva, Jeff Hansen, Ryan Lowe, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, Mark L. Buckley
Wave-driven hydrodynamic processes over fringing reefs with varying slopes, depths, and roughness: Implications for coastal protection
Wave breaking on the steep fore-reef slopes of shallow fringing reefs is effective at dissipating incident sea-swell waves prior to reaching reef shorelines. However, wave setup and free infragravity waves generated during the sea-swell breaking process are often the largest contributors to wave-driven water levels at the shoreline. Laboratory flume experiments and a multi-layer phase-resolving no
Authors
Mark L. Buckley, Ryan L. Lowe, Jeff E. Hansen, Ap R. Dongeren, Andrew Pomeroy, Curt Storlazzi, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, Renan F. Silva, Stephanie Contardo, Rebecca H. Green
The influence of submerged coastal structures on nearshore flows and wave runup
Engineered and natural submerged coastal structures (e.g., submerged breakwaters and reefs) modify incident wave fields and thus can alter hydrodynamic processes adjacent to coastlines. Although submerged structures are generally assumed to promote beach protection by dissipating waves offshore and creating sheltered conditions in their lee, their interaction with waves can result in mean wave-dri
Authors
Renan F. da Silva, Jeff Hansen, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, Ryan Lowe, Mark L. Buckley
Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations of reef surf zone processes driven by plunging irregular waves
As waves interact with the slopes of coral reefs and other steep bathymetry profiles, plunging breaking usually occurs where the free surface overturns and violent water motion is triggered. Resolving these surf zone processes pose significant challenges for conventional mesh-based hydrodynamic models, due to the rapidly-deforming nature of the free surface and associated flows. Yet the accurate p
Authors
Ryan J. Lowe, C. Altomare, Mark L. Buckley, Renan F. da Silva, Jeff E. Hansen, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, J.M. Domínguez, A.J.C. Crespo
Predicting coastal impacts by wave farms: A comparison of wave-averaged and wave-resolving models
Wave energy converters (WECs) will have to be arranged into arrays of many devices to extract commercially viable amounts of energy. To understand the potential coastal impacts of WEC arrays, most research to date has relied on wave-averaged models given their computational efficiency. However, it is unknown how accurate wave-averaged model predictions are given a lack of validation data and their
Authors
Daniel R. David, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, Jeff E. Hansen, Ryan J. Lowe, Mark L. Buckley
An efficient method to calculate depth-integrated, phase-averaged momentum balances in non-hydrostatic models
Analysis of the mean (wave-averaged) momentum balance is a common approach used to explain the physical forcing driving wave set-up and mean currents in the nearshore zone. Traditionally this approach has been applied to phase-averaged models but has more recently been applied to phase-resolving models using post-processing, whereby model output is used to calculate each of the momentum terms. Whi
Authors
Renan F. da Silva, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, Jeff E. Hansen, Ryan J. Lowe, Mark L. Buckley, Marcel Zijlema
Science and Products
- Data
Water level and velocity measurements from the 2012 University of Western Australia Fringing Reef Experiment (UWAFRE)
This data release contains water level and velocity measurements from wave runup experiments performed in a laboratory flume setting. Wave-driven water level variability (and runup at the shoreline) is a significant cause of coastal flooding induced by storms. Wave runup is challenging to predict, particularly along tropical coral reef-fringed coastlines due to the steep bathymetric profiles and l - Multimedia
- Publications
Filter Total Items: 18
Wave runup and inundation dynamics on a perched beach
Sandy beaches perched over rocky shore platforms are common globally, yet their mixed sand and rocky morphology present challenges for quantifying and predicting wave runup and inundation. For typical linear beach profiles, simple relationships can be made between vertical runup and horizontal inundation based on beach slope. However, as topographic irregularities increase, substantial deviationsAuthorsCarly Portch, Michael Cuttler, Mark L. Buckley, Jeff Hansen, Ryan LoweCarbonate sediment transport across coral reefs: A comparison of fringing vs. barrier reefs
Considerable uncertainty remains in the budgets of carbonate sediment on reef lined coasts, particularly with respect to the supply of sediment to a reef flat that is then transported throughout a reef system. In this study, we re-examine two recent studies, one on a barrier reef bounded by channels that incise the reef, and one on a fringing reef without channels. Results indicate that the presenAuthorsKurt J. Rosenberger, Curt Storlazzi, Olivia Cheriton, Mark L. Buckley, Andrew Pomeroy, Ryan Lowe, Jeff HansenModeling total water level and coastal change at Pea Island, North Carolina, USA
The DUring Nearshore Event eXperiment (DUNEX) was carried out on Pea Island, North Carolina, USA between September-October 2021. We use a coupled numerical model (Windsurf) to hindcast the evolution of the DUNEX transect and produce a time series of hourly water levels at the shoreline from the model output. In addition to assessing the ability of Windsurf to reproduce TWL, we use model output paiAuthorsMichael Christopher Itzkin, Margaret Louise Palmsten, Mark L. Buckley, Christopher R. Sherwood, Jenna A. Brown, Jin-Si R. Over, Peter A. TraykovskiWave-scale observations of sediment resuspension and subsequent transport across a fringing reef flat
During a 3-month deployment on a broad, fringing reef flat in Moloka’i, Hawai’i, we observed over 28,000 wave-driven resuspension (WDR) events of coarse-grained sediment in order to identify major factors. These events were short-lived (2-11 s) and distinct from the longer-duration patterns of water-column backscatter. The wave-driven transport of WDR events was onshore, but the net cross-shore trAuthorsOlivia Cheriton, Curt Storlazzi, Kurt J. Rosenberger, Joshua B. Logan, Andrew W. M. Pomeroy, Mark L. Buckley, Jeff E. Hansen, Ryan J. LoweWave-scale observations of coarse-grained sediment resuspension and subsequent transport across a fringing reef flat, Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi, USA
During a 3-month deployment on a broad, fringing reef flat in Moloka’i, Hawai’i, we observed over 28,000 wave-driven resuspension (WDR) events of coarse-grained sediment in order to identify major factors. These events were short-lived (2-11 s) and distinct from the longer-duration patterns of water-column backscatter. The wave-driven transport of WDR events was onshore, but the net cross-shore trAuthorsOlivia Cheriton, Curt Storlazzi, Kurt J. Rosenberger, Joshua B. Logan, Andrew W. M. Pomeroy, Mark L. Buckley, Jeff E. Hansen, Ryan J. LoweFree long wave transformation in the nearshore zone through partial reflections
Long waves play an important role in coastal inundation and shoreline and dune erosion, requiring a detailed understanding of their evolution in nearshore regions and interaction with shorelines. While their generation and dissipation mechanisms are relatively well understood, there are fewer studies describing how reflection processes govern their propagation in the nearshore. We propose a new apAuthorsStephanie Contardo, Ryan J. Lowe, Francois Dufois, Jeff E. Hansen, Mark L. Buckley, Graham SymondsDynamics of the wave-driven circulation in the lee of nearshore reefs
Nearshore rocky reefs with scales of order 10–100 m are common along the world's coastline and often shape wave-driven hydrodynamics and shoreline morphology in their lee. The interaction of waves with these reefs generally results in either two or four-cell mean circulation systems (2CC and 4CC, respectively), with diverging flows behind the reefs and at the shoreline in the 2CC case and flows thAuthorsRenan F. da Silva, Jeff Hansen, Ryan Lowe, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, Mark L. BuckleyWave-driven hydrodynamic processes over fringing reefs with varying slopes, depths, and roughness: Implications for coastal protection
Wave breaking on the steep fore-reef slopes of shallow fringing reefs is effective at dissipating incident sea-swell waves prior to reaching reef shorelines. However, wave setup and free infragravity waves generated during the sea-swell breaking process are often the largest contributors to wave-driven water levels at the shoreline. Laboratory flume experiments and a multi-layer phase-resolving noAuthorsMark L. Buckley, Ryan L. Lowe, Jeff E. Hansen, Ap R. Dongeren, Andrew Pomeroy, Curt Storlazzi, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, Renan F. Silva, Stephanie Contardo, Rebecca H. GreenThe influence of submerged coastal structures on nearshore flows and wave runup
Engineered and natural submerged coastal structures (e.g., submerged breakwaters and reefs) modify incident wave fields and thus can alter hydrodynamic processes adjacent to coastlines. Although submerged structures are generally assumed to promote beach protection by dissipating waves offshore and creating sheltered conditions in their lee, their interaction with waves can result in mean wave-driAuthorsRenan F. da Silva, Jeff Hansen, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, Ryan Lowe, Mark L. BuckleySmoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations of reef surf zone processes driven by plunging irregular waves
As waves interact with the slopes of coral reefs and other steep bathymetry profiles, plunging breaking usually occurs where the free surface overturns and violent water motion is triggered. Resolving these surf zone processes pose significant challenges for conventional mesh-based hydrodynamic models, due to the rapidly-deforming nature of the free surface and associated flows. Yet the accurate pAuthorsRyan J. Lowe, C. Altomare, Mark L. Buckley, Renan F. da Silva, Jeff E. Hansen, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, J.M. Domínguez, A.J.C. CrespoPredicting coastal impacts by wave farms: A comparison of wave-averaged and wave-resolving models
Wave energy converters (WECs) will have to be arranged into arrays of many devices to extract commercially viable amounts of energy. To understand the potential coastal impacts of WEC arrays, most research to date has relied on wave-averaged models given their computational efficiency. However, it is unknown how accurate wave-averaged model predictions are given a lack of validation data and theirAuthorsDaniel R. David, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, Jeff E. Hansen, Ryan J. Lowe, Mark L. BuckleyAn efficient method to calculate depth-integrated, phase-averaged momentum balances in non-hydrostatic models
Analysis of the mean (wave-averaged) momentum balance is a common approach used to explain the physical forcing driving wave set-up and mean currents in the nearshore zone. Traditionally this approach has been applied to phase-averaged models but has more recently been applied to phase-resolving models using post-processing, whereby model output is used to calculate each of the momentum terms. WhiAuthorsRenan F. da Silva, Dirk P. Rijnsdorp, Jeff E. Hansen, Ryan J. Lowe, Mark L. Buckley, Marcel Zijlema - News