Steven E Suttles
Science and Products
Estuarine Processes, Hazards, and Ecosystems
Estuarine processes, hazards, and ecosystems describes several interdisciplinary projects that aim to quantify and understand estuarine processes through observations and numerical modeling. Both the spatial and temporal scales of these mechanisms are important, and therefore require modern instrumentation and state-of-the-art hydrodynamic models. These projects are led from the U.S....
Sediment Transport Instrumentation Facility (STIF)
The Sediment Transport Instrumentation Facility exists to support ocean, coastal and estuarine research. The staff have a broad set of skills; from instrument design and development to all forms of work at sea to software development and data management. The team has successfully deployed and recovered more than 1000 data collection platforms for research in the last 30 years.
Coastal Model Applications and Field Measurements
Numerical models are used by scientists, engineers, coastal managers, and the public to understand and predict processes in the coastal ocean. This project supports the development and application of open-source coastal models and has several objectives: 1) improve the code of numerical sediment-transport models by implementing new or improved algorithms; 2) obtain measurements of coastal...
Estuarine Processes Eutrophication
Increased loadings of nutrients to estuaries have altered ecosystem function by encouraging growth of phytoplankton and macroalgae while inducing large swings in dissolved oxygen and threatening the sustainability of seagrass meadows. We are measuring and modeling these processes to understand the future trajectory of estuarine ecosystems.
Suspended-sediment concentration data from water samples collected in 2016-17 in Grand Bay, Alabama and Mississippi
In wetlands within and near Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, parts of the salt marsh are eroding relatively rapidly. To understand the connection between sediment fluxes and these processes, the U.S. Geological Survey made oceanographic and water-quality measurements from August 2, 2016, to January 28, 2017
Oceanographic, Atmospheric and Water-Quality Measurements Sandwich Town Neck Beach, Massachusetts, 2016
These measurements provide information about waves, tides, and overwash during a winter storm in January 2016; about waves, tides, currents, and water properties between February and May, 2016; and about waves and tides between May and June 2016, during a period that overlaps with offshore bathymetric surveys.
Oceanographic, Atmospheric and Water-Quality Measurements Sandwich Town Neck Beach, Massachusetts, 2017
These measurements provide short-duration datasets of waves, tides, and overwash from portable pressure sensors deployed on the beach during major winter storms on these dates: January 23-26; February 9-10; February 13-15; and March 13-15, 2017. Longer datasets were obtained from sensors on a platform deployed on the seafloor north of the beach in seven meters depth.
U.S. Geological Survey Oceanographic Time-Series Data Collection
Oceanographic time-series measurements made by the U.S. Geological Survey between 1975 and the present as part of research programs. The data were collected to address specific research questions and were primarily collected over durations less than a year, using stationary platforms, with sensors near the sea floor. These data have been used to study of ocean dynamics and to validate ocean...
Discharge Measurements in Bayou Heron and Bayou Middle, Grand Bay, Mississippi, January 2017
Grand Bay, a 30-square-kilometer embayment of the Gulf of Mexico bordered by 20 square kilometers of salt marsh, is experiencing rapid lateral shoreline erosion at up to 5 meters per year. Determining whether the eroded sediment is exported to the deep ocean or imported via tidal channels and deposited on the marsh platform is critical to understanding the long-term response of the marsh to w...
Water level measurements collected in West Falmouth Harbor, MA, 2017
Water-level gauges were deployed at two sites in West Falmouth Harbor between April and June 2017. One gauge was mounted under the town-owned West Falmouth boat dock and the other on the private Associates dock near the mouth of the Harbor. Data from the upper sensor at the Associates dock were used to make atmospheric pressure corrections at both sites.
Spatiotemporal variability of light attenuation and net ecosystem metabolism in a back-barrier estuary
Quantifying system-wide biogeochemical dynamics and ecosystem metabolism in estuaries is often attempted using a long-term continuous record at a single site or short-term records at multiple sites due to sampling limitations that preclude long-term monitoring. However, differences in the dominant primary producer at a given location (e.g.,...
Ganju, Neil Kamal; Testa, Jeremy; Suttles, Steven; Aretxabaleta, Alfredo
Summary of oceanographic and water-quality measurements in Chincoteague Bay, Maryland and Virginia, 2014–15
U.S. Geological Survey scientists and technical support staff measured oceanographic, waterquality, seabed-elevation-change, and meteorological parameters in Chincoteague Bay, Maryland and Virginia, during the period of August 13, 2014, to July 14, 2015, as part of the Estuarine Physical Response to Storms project (GS2–2D) supported by the...
Suttles, Steven E. ; Ganju, Neil K.; Brosnahan, Sandra M.; Montgomery, Ellyn T. ; Dickhudt, Patrick J. ; Beudin, Alexis; Nowacki, Daniel J. ; Martini, Marinna A. Quantification of storm-induced bathymetric change in a back-barrier estuary
Geomorphology is a fundamental control on ecological and economic function of estuaries. However, relative to open coasts, there has been little quantification of storm-induced bathymetric change in back-barrier estuaries. Vessel-based and airborne bathymetric mapping can cover large areas quickly, but change detection is difficult because...
Ganju, Neil K.; Suttles, Steven E.; Beudin, Alexis; Nowacki, Daniel J. ; Miselis, Jennifer L.; Andrews, Brian D. Oceanographic, atmospheric and water-quality measurements Sandwich Town Neck Beach, Massachusetts, 2016
This web page provides access to oceanographic, atmospheric, and water quality observations near Sandwich Town Neck Beach, Massachusetts. These measurements were made in conjunction with two U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) projects; the Coastal Model Applications and Measurements Project, and the Barrier Island Evolution Research project, both...
Sherwood, Christopher R.; Montgomery, Ellyn T. ; Suttles, Steven E. ; Brosnahan, Sandra M.
Summary of oceanographic and water-quality measurements in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, 2014–15
Scientists and technical support staff from the U.S. Geological Survey measured suspended-sediment concentrations, currents, pressure, and water temperature in two tidal creeks, Reedy Creek and Dinner Creek, in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, from August 11, 2014, to July 10, 2015 as part of the Estuarine Physical Response to Storms project (GS2–2D)....
Suttles, Steven E.; Ganju, Neil K.; Montgomery, Ellyn T.; Dickhudt, Patrick J.; Borden, Jonathan; Brosnahan, Sandra M.; Martini, Marinna A. Colored dissolved organic matter in shallow estuaries: relationships between carbon sources and light attenuation
Light availability is of primary importance to the ecological function of shallow estuaries. For example, benthic primary production by submerged aquatic vegetation is contingent upon light penetration to the seabed. A major component that attenuates light in estuaries is colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM). CDOM is often measured via a proxy...
Oestreich, W.K.; Ganju, Neil K.; Pohlman, John; Suttles, Steven E.
USGS Deploys Oceanographic Gear Offshore from Matanzas Inlet, St. Augustine, Florida
Matanzas is a natural, unstabilized inlet, which makes it an ideal location to study dynamic inlet processes in a non-maintained channel.