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Ferdinand Oberle

Research Geologist with the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Research Focus

2020-present: Geologist, USGS, Santa Cruz, CA, USA. I am currently involved in three fields of research: groundwater discharge through coastal aquifers; conceptualizing hydrologically and cryogenically driven permafrost erosion; and physicochemical drivers of coral reef health. I also created the Unmanned Aerial System Coastal Aquifer Project, which develops new drone-based technologies to investigate permafrost stability, wetlands, and aquifers. All projects have a strong interdisciplinary nature focusing on anthropogenic versus natural disturbances that rely on a multitude of oceanographic, marine geological, hydrogeological, and geochemical methods. As part of my older research interests I also continue to collaborate and advise on research focusing on the geological and geochemical consequences of bottom trawling.

Professional Experience

  • 2020-present: Geologist, USGS, Santa Cruz, CA

  • 2016, Mendenhall Postdoctoral Researcher, USGS

  • 2014, Visiting Professor, Quest University, Squamish (Vancouver), BC, Canada

  • 2013, Visiting Scientist at the USGS, Santa Cruz and Menlo Park, CA, USA

  • 2008-2011, Adjunct Professor, Chabot-Las Positas College, Livermore, CA, USA

  • 2007-2011, Sedimentologist/Hydrogeologist, Garcia & Associates, San Anselmo, CA, USA

  • 2006-2007, Middle School Oceanography Teacher, San Francisco Maritime Assoc., CA, USA

  • 2002-2003, Staff Geologist, German Environmental Protection Agency, Rheinfelden, Germany

  • 2000-2001, NASA Space Grant Fellowship, Hawaii Space Consortium, Honolulu, HI, USA

Education and Certifications

  • 2015, MARUM-IODP Center, University of Bremen, Germany, Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.)

  • 2012 - 2014, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Ph.D. study with Chris Reddy

  • 2005, University of Bremen, Germany – M.S. Environmental and Marine Geology

  • 2002, Bowdoin College, USA – B.A. Geology

  • 2000 - 2001, (SOEST) School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, Hawaii

Science and Products

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Coral head that looks like lettuce sits on sandy bottom in clear blue water and is surrounded by brightly colored fish.

Coral Reef Project

Explore the fascinating undersea world of coral reefs. Learn how we map, monitor, and model coral reefs so we can better understand, protect, and preserve our Nation's reefs.
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
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Coral Reef Project

Explore the fascinating undersea world of coral reefs. Learn how we map, monitor, and model coral reefs so we can better understand, protect, and preserve our Nation's reefs.
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Cartoon showing the cross-section of a hill near an ocean and the movement of groundwater underneath.

Hydrogeology and Reef Health

As part of the USGS Coral Reef Project, we are conducting geophysical and geochemical research to address questions about coastal groundwater-to-reef flow and coral reef health, with the goal of informing management decisions related to planning and implementing activities in priority watershed-coral reef systems.
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
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Hydrogeology and Reef Health

As part of the USGS Coral Reef Project, we are conducting geophysical and geochemical research to address questions about coastal groundwater-to-reef flow and coral reef health, with the goal of informing management decisions related to planning and implementing activities in priority watershed-coral reef systems.
Learn More
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Aerial photograph looking at an eroding bluff on an arctic island with ponded water, green grass, and dying grass.

Climate impacts to Arctic coasts

The Arctic region is warming faster than anywhere else in the nation. Understanding the rates and causes of coastal change in Alaska is needed to identify and mitigate hazards that might affect people and animals that call Alaska home.
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
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Climate impacts to Arctic coasts

The Arctic region is warming faster than anywhere else in the nation. Understanding the rates and causes of coastal change in Alaska is needed to identify and mitigate hazards that might affect people and animals that call Alaska home.
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Illustration showing how groundwater circulates through a coastal setting and interacts with seawater.

Submarine Groundwater Discharge

We define submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) to consist either of fresh groundwater, re-circulated seawater, or a composite thereof. We evaluate and present SGD in terms of a vector for nutrient delivery to coastal waters.
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
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Submarine Groundwater Discharge

We define submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) to consist either of fresh groundwater, re-circulated seawater, or a composite thereof. We evaluate and present SGD in terms of a vector for nutrient delivery to coastal waters.
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Near-shore seawater-column measurements of excess radon (Rn-222) and water levels, Faga'alu Bay, Tutuila, American Samoa, August 2018

This data table includes in-situ near-shore seawater measurements of excess radon (Rn-222) and water levels collected in Faga'alu Bay, Tutuila, American Samoa.
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
A thermal image of people standing near the water's edge on a beach.
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Conceptual drawing of bottom trawling from a fishing boat, showing a net and metal plate being dragged behind a boat.
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Physicochemical coastal groundwater dynamics between Kauhakō Crater lake and Kalaupapa settlement, Moloka‘i, Hawai‘i

Land-based sources of groundwater pollution can be a critical threat to coral reefs, and a better understanding of “ridge-to-reef” water movement is required to advance management and coral survival in the Anthropocene. In this study a more complete understanding of the geological, atmospheric, and oceanic drivers behind coastal groundwater exchange on the Kalaupapa peninsula, on Moloka‘i, Hawai‘i
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Ferdinand Oberle, Olivia Cheriton, Peter W Swarzenski, Eric K. Brown, Curt D. Storlazzi
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Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Vadose zone thickness limits pore-fluid pressures and acceleration in a large, slow-moving landslide

The rate and timing of hydrologically forced landslides is a complex function of precipitation patterns, material properties, topography, and groundwater hydrology. In the simplest form, however, slopes fail when subsurface pore pressure grows large enough to exceed the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. The capacity for pore pressure rise in a landslide is determined in part by the thickness of the
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C.R. Murphy, N.J. Finnegan, Ferdinand Oberle
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Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

High-resolution observations of submarine groundwater discharge reveal the fine spatial and temporal scales of nutrient exposure on a coral reef: Faga'alu, AS

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) can deliver substantial nutrient and contaminant loads to nearshore coral reefs. Correctly scaling SGD rates from a point source to a reef is generally a linear process involving simplified assumptions on the hydrogeology, bathymetry, and nearshore hydrodynamics that are essential to properly assess SGD scale and impact to individual coral heads. Here, we appl
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Ferdinand Oberle, Nancy G. Prouty, Segun B. Adebayo, Curt Storlazzi
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Late Holocene environmental change in Celestun Lagoon, Yucatan, Mexico

Epikarst estuary response to hydroclimate change remains poorly understood, despite the well-studied link between climate and karst groundwater aquifers. The influence of sea-level rise and coastal geomorphic change on these estuaries obscures climate signals, thus requiring careful development of paleoenvironmental histories to interpret the paleoclimate archives. We used foraminifera assemblages
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Kyle Hardage, Joseph Street, Jorge A. Herrera-Silveira, Ferdinand Oberle, Adina Paytan
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Core Preparation and Analysis Laboratory and Sample Repositories, Multi-Sensor Core Logger Laboratory

Physicochemical controls on zones of higher coral stress where Black Band Disease occurs at Mākua Reef, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi

Pervasive and sustained coral diseases contribute to the systemic degradation of reef ecosystems, however, to date an understanding of the physicochemical controls on a coral disease event is still largely lacking. Water circulation and residence times and submarine groundwater discharge all determine the degree to which reef organisms are exposed to the variable chemistry of overlying waters; und
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Ferdinand Oberle, Curt D. Storlazzi, Olivia Cheriton, Renee K. Takesue, Daniel J. Hoover, Joshua B. Logan, Christina M. Runyon, Christina A. Kellogg, Cordell Johnson, Peter W. Swarzenski
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Towards determining spatial methane distribution on Arctic permafrost bluffs with an unmanned aerial system

Arctic permafrost stores vast amounts of methane (CH4) in subsurface reservoirs. Thawing permafrost creates areas for this potent greenhouse gas to be released to the atmosphere. Identifying ‘hot spots’ of methane flux on a local scale has been limited by the spatial scales of traditional ground-based or satellite-based methane-sampling methods. Here we present a reliable and an easily replicable
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Ferdinand K. J. Oberle, Ann E. Gibbs, Bruce M. Richmond, Li H. Erikson, Mark P. Waldrop, Peter W. Swarzenski
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Climate Research and Development Program, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Atoll groundwater movement and its response to climatic and sea-level fluctuations

Groundwater resources of low-lying atoll islands are threatened due to short-term and long-term changes in rainfall, wave climate, and sea level. A better understanding of how these forcings affect the limited groundwater resources was explored on Roi-Namur in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. As part of a 16-month study, a rarely recorded island-overwash event occurred and the island’s aquife
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Ferdinand K. J. Oberle, Peter W. Swarzenski, Curt D. Storlazzi
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Fishing activities

Unlike the major anthropogenic changes that terrestrial and coastal habitats underwent during the last centuries such as deforestation, river engineering, agricultural practices or urbanism, those occurring underwater are veiled from our eyes and have continued nearly unnoticed. Only recent advances in remote sensing and deep marine sampling technologies have revealed the extent and magnitude of t
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Ferdinand K. J. Oberle, Pere Puig, Jacobo Martin
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Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

What a drag: Quantifying the global impact of chronic bottom trawling on continental shelf sediment

Continental shelves worldwide are subject to intense bottom trawling that causes sediment to be resuspended. The widely used traditional concepts of modern sedimentary transport systems on the shelf rely only on estimates for naturally driven sediment resuspension such as through storm waves, bottom currents, and gravity-driven flows but they overlook a critical anthropogenic factor. The strong in
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Ferdinand K. J. Oberle, Curt D. Storlazzi, Till J.J. Hanebuth
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Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Wave-driven sediment mobilization on a storm-controlled continental shelf (Northwest Iberia)

Seafloor sediment mobilization on the inner Northwest Iberian continental shelf is caused largely by ocean surface waves. The temporal and spatial variability in the wave height, wave period, and wave direction has a profound effect on local sediment mobilization, leading to distinct sediment mobilization scenarios. Six grain-size specific sediment mobilization scenarios, representing seasonal ave
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Ferdinand Oberle, Curt D. Storlazzi, Till Hanebuth
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Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Non-USGS Publications**

Proceedings of the International Conference on DELTAS: Geological Modeling and Management. AIST, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Abstract, Geological Society of America, Northeastern Section, 38th Meeting
NASA Space Consortium

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

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Groundwater and Coral Health at Moloka'i, Hawai'i

New research from the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center and the National Park Service examines how the discharge of submarine groundwater...

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USGS collaborates with National Park Service to study threatened coral reefs in American Samoa

USGS scientists from the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center and the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center are cooperating with the...

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A Tale of Two Drones

Unmanned Aircraft Used to “Sniff” Methane Gas Escaping from Thawing Permafrost

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USGS Uses Drone to Measure Methane Escaping from Arctic Permafrost: Low-Cost Method Fills Gap in Detection Techniques

The USGS has developed a low-cost technique for making detailed measurements of methane escaping from thawing permafrost in coastal Arctic bluffs.

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