Gregory Noe
Research Interests:
Wetland ecosystem ecology, focusing on the interactive influences of hydrology, geomorphology, climate, and biology on nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and sediment biogeochemistry and transport in watersheds, as well as plant community ecology and restoration ecology.
Biography
Greg Noe has been a Research Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's in Reston, VA, since 2002, where he leads the Wetland Ecosystem Ecology & Biogeochemistry Laboratory (WEEBL) in the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center. Dr. Noe’s research centers on wetland ecosystem ecology, focusing on the interactive influences of geomorphology, hydrology, climate, and biology on nitrogen and phosphorus biogeochemistry in fluvial ecosystems, as well as plant community ecology and restoration ecology. His dissertation research identified the complex controls on annual plant germination in the salt marshes of southern California. This was followed by post-doctoral research on phosphorus biogeochemistry and enrichment effects in the Florida Everglades. When joining the USGS, he started a research program on nutrient cycling, transport, and retention in wetlands associated with flowing waters. This work includes quantifying nutrient retention by riverine floodplains from site to watershed scales with study sites located in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Louisiana; the effect of sea level rise and salinification on tidal freshwater forested wetland ecosystem resilience in Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia; phosphorus and sediment transport research in the Florida Everglades; and studies of nutrient dynamics and trapping in created mitigation bank wetlands located in Virginia, stream restoration projects in North Carolina, and floodplain restoration in Maryland and Indiana. He is currently serving on the editorial board of Wetlands and previously of Wetlands Ecology and Management, is the past Chair of the South Atlantic Chapter of the Society of Wetland Scientists, the recipient of the President's Service Award from the Society of Wetland Scientists, and has served on the program committees of national and international scientific conferences. Greg is a recipient of the Meritorius Service Award from the Department of the Interior.
Current focus areas:
-Measuring and modeling the effects of floodplains on sediment and nutrient transport in watersheds
-Sea level rise and watershed impacts to the resilience and water quality functions of tidal freshwater wetlands
-Quantifying the water quality benefits of wetland restoration and creation and how to optimize their design
Science and Products
Quantifying Floodplain Ecological Processes and Ecosystem Services in the Delaware River Watershed
Floodplain and wetland areas provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining sediments, nutrients, and floodwaters. The loss of floodplain functionality due to land use conversion and degradation reduces the provisioning of these services. Assessing, quantifying, and valuing floodplain ecosystem services provide a framework to estimate how floodplain...
The effects of restored hydrologic connectivity on floodplain trapping vs. release of phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment along the Pocomoke River, Maryland USA
River channelization and artificial levees have decreased the hydrologic connectivity of river-floodplain systems around the world. In response, restoration through enhancing connectivity has been advocated to improve the functions of floodplains, but uncertain benefits and the possibility of phosphate release from re-flooded soils has limited...
Noe, Gregory B.; Boomer, Kathy; Gillespie, Jaimie; Hupp, Cliff R.; Martin-Alciati, Mario; Floro, Kelly; Schenk, Edward R.; Jacobs, Amy K.; Strano, Steve Typha (cattail) invasion in North American wetlands: Biology, regional problems, impacts, ecosystem services, and management
Typha is an iconic wetland plant found worldwide. Hybridization and anthropogenic disturbances have resulted in large increases in Typha abundance in wetland ecosystems throughout North America at a cost to native floral and faunal biodiversity. As demonstrated by three regional case studies, Typha is capable of rapidly colonizing habitats and...
Bansal, Sheel; Lishawa, Shane; Newman, Sue; Tangen, Brian A.; Wilcox, Douglas A.; Albert, Dennis; Anteau, Michael J.; Chimney, Michael J; Cressey, Ryann L.; DeKeyser, Edward S.; Elgersam, Kenneth J; Finkelstein, Sarah A; Freeland, Joanna; Grosshans, Richard; Klug, Page E.; Larkin, Daniel J; Lawrence, Beth A; Linz, George; Marburger, Joy; Noe, Gregory B.; Otto, Clint R. V.; Reo, Nicholas; Richards, Jennifer; Richardson, Curtis J.; Rodgers, LeRoy; Shrank, Amy J; Svedarsky, Dan; Travis, Steven E.; Tuchman, Nancy; van der Valk, Arnold; Windham-Myers, Lisamarie Sediment trapping and carbon sequestration in floodplains of the lower Atchafalaya Basin, LA: Allochthonous vs. autochthonous carbon sources
Recent studies suggest that about 2 Pg of organic C is stored on floodplains worldwide. The present study indicates the Atchafalaya River, fifth largest river in the United States in terms of discharge, traps 30 mm/y of sediment on average within its floodplain, which is the highest average non‐episodic rate of fluvial deposition on the U.S....
Hupp, Cliff R.; Kroes, Daniel E.; Noe, Gregory B.; Schenk, Edward R.; Day, Richard H. Adaptive management assists reintroduction as higher tides threaten an endangered salt marsh plant
In theory, extirpated plant species can be reintroduced and managed to restore sustainable populations. However, few reintroduced plants are known to persist for more than a few years. Our adaptive‐management case study illustrates how we restored the endangered hemiparasitic annual plant, Chloropyron maritimum subsp. maritimum...
Noe, Gregory B.; Fellows, Meghan; Parsons, Lorraine; West, Janelle; Callaway, John C.; Trnka, Sally; Wegener, Mark; Zedler, Joy Controls of the spatial variability of denitrification potential in nontidal floodplains of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, USA
Identifying floodplains with high rates of denitrification will help prioritize restoration projects for the removal of nitrogen. Currently, relationships of denitrification with hydrogeomorphic, physiographic, and climate (i.e., largescale) characteristics of floodplains are relatively unknown, even though these...
Korol, Alicia R.; Noe, Gregory B.; Ahn, Changwoo The impact of late Holocene land-use change, climate variability, and sea-level rise on carbon storage in tidal freshwater wetlands on the southeastern United States Coastal Plain
This study examines Holocene impacts of changes in climate, land use, and sea-level rise (SLR) on sediment accretion, carbon accumulation rates (CAR), and vegetation along a transect of tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFW) to oligohaline marsh along the Waccamaw River, South Carolina (4 sites) and along the Savannah River, Georgia (4 sites)....
Jones, Miriam; Bernhardt, Christopher E.; Krauss, K.W.; Noe, Gregory B. Bank‐derived material dominates fluvial sediment in a suburban Chesapeake Bay watershed
Excess fine sediment is a leading cause of ecological degradation within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. To effectively target sediment mitigation measures, it is necessary to identify and quantify the delivery of sediment sources to local waterbodies.This study examines the contributions of sediment sources within Upper Difficult Run, a...
Cashman, Matthew J.; Gellis, Allen; Gorman Sanisaca, Lillian; Noe, Gregory B.; Cogliandro, Vanessa; Baker, Anna A method to quantify and value floodplain sediment and nutrient retention ecosystem services
Floodplains provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining floodwaters, sediments, and nutrients. The dynamic nature of floodplains is such that these areas can both accumulate sediment and nutrients through deposition, and export material downstream through erosion. Therefore, estimating floodplain sediment...
Hopkins, Kristina G.; Noe, Gregory B.; Franco, Fabiano; Pindilli, Emily J.; Gordon, Stephanie; Metes, Marina J.; Claggett, Peter; Gellis, Allen; Hupp, Cliff R.; Hogan, Dianna M. A floodplain continuum for Atlantic coast rivers of the Southeastern US: Predictable changes in floodplain biota along a river's length
Floodplains are among the world’s economically-most-valuable, environmentally-most-threatened, and yet conceptually-least-understood ecosystems. Drawing on concepts from existing riverine and wetland models, and empirical data from floodplains of Atlantic Coast rivers in the Southeastern US (and elsewhere when possible), we introduce a conceptual...
Batzer, Darold P.; Noe, Gregory B.; Lee, Linda; Galatowitsch, Mark Floodplain trapping and cycling compared to streambank erosion of sediment and nutrients in an agricultural watershed
Floodplains and streambanks can positively and negatively influence downstream water quality through interacting geomorphic and biogeochemical processes. Few studies have measured those processes in agricultural watersheds. We measured inputs (floodplain sedimentation and dissolved inorganic loading), cycling (floodplain soil nitrogen [N] and...
Gillespie, Jaimie; Noe, Gregory B.; Hupp, Cliff R.; Gellis, Allen; Schenk, Edward R. Tidal extension and sea-level rise: recommendations for a research agenda
Sea-level rise is pushing freshwater tides upstream into formerly non-tidal rivers. This tidal extension may increase the area of tidal freshwater ecosystems and offset loss of ecosystem functions due to salinization downstream. Without considering how gains in ecosystem functions could offset losses, landscape-scale assessments of ecosystem...
Ensign, Scott H.; Noe, Gregory B. Increasing floodplain connectivity through urban stream restoration increases nutrient and sediment retention
Stream restoration practices frequently aim to increase connectivity between the stream channel and its floodplain to improve channel stability and enhance water quality through sediment trapping and nutrient retention. To measure the effectiveness of restoration and to understand the drivers of these functional responses, we monitored five...
McMillan, Sara K.; Noe, Gregory B.