Emily Wei, Ph.D.
Emily's research aims to understand how sediment availability, hydrodynamics, geology, and human modifications influence barrier island and coastal response to sea-level rise and storms.
Biography
Research
Emily investigates these processes on the mid-Atlantic margin as part of the Coastal Sediment Availability and Flux group. In nearshore settings, Emily uses chirp seismic reflection, multibeam bathymetry, and sediment sampling to study the shoreface, a transition zone between the beach and continental shelf. This area is important, as sediment eroded from the shoreface can be transported to the beach, or vice versa.
Education
Ph.D. Earth Sciences (2019): Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
M.S. Earth Sciences (2014): Scripps Institution of Oceanography
B.A. Geology (2013): Middlebury College
Science and Products
Coastal Sediment Availability and Flux (CSAF) Capabilities
As part of the Coastal Sediment Availability and Flux project, we use innovative technology and integrate a variety of techniques to characterize barrier island environments, reconstruct their past history, and predict their future vulnerability.
Modeling Barrier Island Evolution, Shoreface Morphology, and Overwash
Barrier island field observations provide information about past and current environmental conditions and changes over time; however, they can’t tell us about the future. Models can predict possible future behaviors but are only as good as their input data. By integrating both observations and models, we can extend observations and arrive at more realistic predictions of barrier island...
Shoreface Morphology and Geology
Exchanges of sediment between the shoreface and barrier islands allow barrier islands to adjust to changes in water level, such as those associated with storms or sea-level rise. Characterizing shoreface morphology and geology allows us to explore how past and present processes have impacted modern barrier island sediment transport and what that means for future barrier island evolution.
Barrier Island Sensitivity to Changes in Sediment Supply
Observations and models show that maintaining barrier islands requires a balance between sea-level rise and sediment supply. However, most estimates of sediment supply are not based on modern conditions, which could result in less accurate predictions of sediment fluxes. We explore how natural and human alterations impact modern sediment fluxes, or changes, on barrier islands – research that...
Storm-Related Barrier Island Morphological Evolution
Storms quickly and dramatically alter barrier island environments by changing adjacent seafloor morphology, eroding beaches, scarping or leveling dunes, and sometimes creating new inlets. Measuring the magnitude of barrier island sediment movement during and after storms allows us to track rates of beach recovery, dune growth, and inlet-related alterations to barrier island sediment supply....
Coastal Sediment Availability and Flux (CSAF)
Sediments are the foundation of coastal systems, including barrier islands. Their behavior is driven by not only sediment availability, but also sediment exchanges between barrier island environments. We collect geophysical, remote sensing, and sediment data to estimate these parameters, which are integrated with models to improve prediction of coastal response to extreme storms and sea-level...
SPCMSC Scientists Investigate Shoreface and Shelf Change Offshore of Mid-Atlantic Barrier Islands
SPCMSC scientist Emily Wei and operations personnel Andrew Farmer, BJ Reynolds, and Chelsea Stalk will be collecting high-resolution bathymetric data from the barrier systems of Rockaway, New York, and Seven Mile Island, New Jersey, to study their evolution.