Pacific Coastal & Marine Science Center
USGS Pacific Coastal & Marine Science CenterWe conduct multidisciplinary scientific research in the coastal and offshore areas of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, and other US Pacific Islands; and in other waterways of the United States. News & Announcements
On May 19, USGS marine geologist James Hein is presenting an invited lecture on the "Contribution of Deep-Ocean Mineral Deposits to the Global Minerals Wealth" for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of California in Santa Cruz, CA. Sponsored by the Bernard Osher Foundation, Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes across the country support noncredit educational programs for older adults. Hein, a recognized expert on deep-sea mineral resources, is a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists and the Geological Society of America and chief scientific advisor to the Department of State delegation to the International Seabed Authority. For more information, contact Jim Hein at jhein@usgs.gov.
USGS scientist Curt Storlazzi will attend the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) workshop on Vulnerability of Coral Reef-Protected Coastlines in a Changing Environment, May 24-June 2, in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. The ADB invited and funded Storlazzi to work with international scientists to provide guidance on a proposed $100,000,000 effort focused on remediation of coral reefs to protect coastlines throughout Asia from sea-level rise and climate-change impacts to infrastructure, food and freshwater security, and habitats. Storlazzi is the chief scientist of the USGS Pacific Coral Reef Project. For more information, contact Curt Storlazzi at cstorlazzi@usgs.gov or 831-460-7521.
On May 8, USGS biologists on board the joint USGS/BOEM/NOAA and university expedition "Deepwater Canyons 2013 - Pathways to the Abyss" discovered vast beds of deep sea chemosynthetic mussels over a mile deep in Deepwater Canyons of the coast of the Atlantic. The new community was found in a gas seep site being visited for the first time. Bathymetric data collected on a previous expedition had suggested, based on bubbles rising through the water columns, that this may be the site of a previously undiscovered gas seep. This discovery confirmed the presence of a seep and an associated biological community. The information was posted on the expeditions' blog hosted by NOAA at http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/13midatlantic/logs/may8/may8.html and was tweeted from @USGS and @USGSAquaticLife. For more information, contact Helen Gibbons at 831-460-7418, hgibbons@usgs.go or Rachel Pawlitz at 352-264-3554, rpawlitz@usgs.gov
From April 30 to May 27, the USGS DISCOVRE team (http://fl.biology.usgs.gov/DISCOVRE/) will participate in a research expedition aboard NOAA vessel Ronald H. Brown. Using WHOI's remotely operated vehicle JASON II, they will investigate the ecology of deepwater canyons off the U.S. east coast. Little is known about life in the canyons, which are pathways for nutrients, sediments and pollutants from the continental shelf to the deep sea. DISCOVRE scientists Cheryl Morrison, Amanda Demopoulos, Christina Kellogg, and Nancy Prouty are in the third year of a four-year study in collaboration with the Bureau of Ocean Energy and Management (BOEM). Sponsored by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), the study includes NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER). Follow the expedition online at http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/13midatlantic/welcome.html and https://deepwatercanyons.wordpress.com/. For more information, contact Amanda Demopoulos at ademopoulos@usgs.gov.
USGS geologist Patrick Barnard has been invited by California State Assemblyman Rich Gordon to speak at the first briefing of the Assembly Select Committee on Sea Level Rise and the California Economy, on May 15 in Sacramento, CA. The goal of this briefing is to educate the California Legislature on the state-of-the-science of projected climate-change impacts to the California coast. Barnard's research focuses on impacts of climate change and coastal storms; he and collaborators recently released the Climate Impacts Tool (at http://data.prbo.org/apps/ocof/), an interactive software tool to help natural-resource managers and local governments in the San Francisco Bay region anticipate local coastal climate-change impacts. For more information, visit http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2013/04/research2.html or contact Patrick Barnard at pbarnard@usgs.gov.
On April 2-4, USGS scientists Amy Foxgrover, Theresa Fregoso, Jamie Grover, Mike Boyle, Tim Elfers, Jackson Currie, and Tom Reiss collected high-resolution swath bathymetry and single beam bathymetry in South San Francisco Bay, the site of the largest tidal wetland restoration project on the West Coast. These data will be used to monitor changes in the bay, creeks, and sloughs, as levees are breached to restore former salt ponds. Also, these data will be combined with sediment core data collected by USGS scientist Mark Marvin-DiPasquale, to estimate the amount of mercury potentially remobilized by restoration. Mercury remobilization estimates will be used to guide restoration management decisions. The California Coastal Conservancy and US EPA funded this study. For more information, contact Bruce Jaffe at bjaffe@usgs.gov or Amy Foxgrover at afoxgrover@usgs.gov.
USGS scientists, in collaboration with NOAA and PRBO Conservation Science, recently released the beta version of an interactive tool for assessing climate-change impacts along the north-central California coast. The new Climate Impacts Tool, which currently covers the California coastline from Half Moon Bay to Bodega Bay, was posted on February 20, 2013, at http://data.prbo.org/apps/ocof/. The USGS CoSMoS team includes project manager Patrick Barnard (who is also co-principal investigator, along with Grant Ballard of PRBO Conservation Science, on the Our Coast Our Future project), lead modeler/coastal engineer Li Erikson, geologist Amy Foxgrover, and oceanographer Andy O'Neill. Deltares collaborators include Maarten van Ormondt and Edwin Elias. Read More...
Near-term seagrass protection and enhancement goals in the Pacific Northwest could be affected by climate-change components that alter nearshore atmospheric, oceanic, and coastal attributes and processes, such as changing temperature, storminess, precipitation, runoff, sea level, upwelling, and ocean acidification. To explore the implications of such changes for seagrass research, restoration, resilience, and adaptation, 35 climatologists, seagrass researchers, and resource managers from universities, the Northwest Indian College, and State and Federal agencies gathered at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories January 23–25, 2013, for a workshop titled "The Future of Pacific Northwest Seagrasses in a Changing Climate." The goals of the workshop—cosponsored by the USGS, the Washington Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Washington Sea Grant—were to quantify impacts and mechanisms, discuss the current state of scientific knowledge, and identify critical issues, data gaps, and uncertainties. Read more...
Melissa Foley has joined the USGS Pacific Coastal & Marine Science Center as a postdoctoral researcher in the USGS Mendenhall Research Fellowship Program. Melissa is focusing her USGS postdoctoral work on how two large dam removals on the Elwha River in the State of Washington will affect marine ecosystems. Read more... PCMSC Seminar Series Please join us at our Santa Cruz, CA Science Center for
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URL: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/
Page Contact Information: Laura Zink Torresan
Page Last Modified: 21 May 2013 (lzt)
Lecture on Deep-Ocean Mineral Deposits
Mapping South San Francisco Bay for West Coast's Largest Tidal Wetland Restoration:
