Publications

We present a detailed analysis of the seasonal distribution, size, morphological variability and geochemistry of co‐occurring pink and white chromotypes of Globigerinoides ruberfrom a high‐resolution (1–2 weeks) and long‐running sediment trap time series in the northern Gulf of Mexico. We find no difference in the seasonal flux of the two chromotypes. Although flux of G. ruber is...

Scientists have advocated for local interventions, such as creating marine protected areas and implementing fishery restrictions, as ways to mitigate local stressors to limit the effects of climate change on reef-building corals. However, in a literature review, we find little empirical support for the notion of managed resilience. We outline some reasons for why marine protected areas...

Variability of sea-surface temperature related to shifts in the mode of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been implicated as a possible forcing mechanism for the global-scale changes in tropical and subtropical precipitation known as the 4.2 ka event. We review records of coral reef development and paleoceanography from the tropical eastern Pacific (TEP) to evaluate the...

The South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) is the Southern Hemisphere’s largest precipitation feature supplying freshwater to 11 million people. Despite its significance, little is known about the location and intensity of SPCZ precipitation prior to instrumental records, hindering attempts to predict precipitation changes in a warming world. Here we use sedimentary molecular fossils to...

This study documented surface distributions of live and dead foraminiferal assemblages in the low-gradient tidal marshes of the barrier island and estuarine complex of the eastern Mississippi Sound (Grand Bay, Pascagoula River, Fowl River, Dauphin Island). A total of 71,833 specimens representing 38 species were identified from a gradient of different elevation zones across the study...

Air pollution and dust storms are associated with increased cardiovascular hospital admissions. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants and CVD (cardiovascular disease) events in a long-term observational period. The study included the events of cardiovascular diseases (namely coronary artery disease, ischemic heart...

The carbonate sediments of the Western Australian shelf in the Indian Ocean host diverse assemblages of benthic foraminifera. Environments of the shelf are dominated by the southward-flowing Leeuwin Current, which impacts near-surface circulation and influences biogeographic ranges of Indo-Pacific warm-water foraminifera. Analyses of outer ramp to upper slope sediments (127–264 m water...

Repeated sampling and grain-size analysis of surficial sediments along the sandy shorelines of Louisiana is necessary to characterize coastal-zone sediment properties and evaluate sediment transport patterns within the nearshore environments. In 2008, and again in 2015 and 2016, sediment grab samples were collected along the shorelines of the western Chenier plain, the Isles Dernieres...

Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a long-term coastal morphologic-change study at Fire Island, New York, prior to and after Hurricane Sandy impacted the area in October 2012. The Fire Island Coastal Change project objectives include understanding the morphologic evolution of the barrier island system on a variety of time scales (months to centuries) and...

Land-cover classification analysis using Landsat satellite imagery acquired between 1984 and 2017 quantified short- (post-Hurricane Sandy) and long-term wetland-change trends along the Maryland and Virginia coasts between Metompkin Bay, VA and Ocean City, MD. Although there are limited options for upland migration of wetlands in the study area, regression analysis showed that wetland...

The strontium to calcium ratio (Sr/Ca) in aragonitic skeletons of massive corals provides a proxy for sea surface temperature (SST) that can be used to reconstruct paleoclimates across decades, centuries, and, potentially, millennia. Determining the reproducibility of Sr/Ca records among contemporaneous coral colonies from the same region is critical to quantifying uncertainties...

Dauphin Island and Little Dauphin Island, collectively, make up a geomorphically complex barrier island system located along Alabama’s southern coast, separating Mississippi Sound from the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay. The barrier island system provides numerous economical (tourism, fisheries) and natural (habitat for migratory birds, natural protection of inland and coastal areas from...