Research

My research focuses on coastal process that transport sediment and modify landscapes, landforms and ecosystems. This work spans rivers, estuaries and the nearshore coastal zone where surface processes modify coastal lands and the seafloor where people maintain property, infrastructure and livelihoods and where ecosystems are structured that support wildlife and ecosystem services critical to human well-being.

This simulation of the transport and mixing of suspended sediment from the Nisqually River helps inform potential for marsh accretion and where turbidity may be limiting light availability for seagrass, both are important for nursery and rearing success of salmon, forage fish, crab and other valued species.

 

USGS Coastal Habitats in Puget Sound Project (CHIPS)
This project integrates hydrologists, chemists, fishery biologists, geologists, oceanographers and economists to evaluate sediment and contaminant transport pathways within the coastal zone to better understand their importance to hazards management, coastal stability in light of sea level rise, habitat functions and the growing impacts of contaminants to our ecosystem and foods. The goals of this project are:

  1. Model  fine sediment transport through streams and the coastal zone and determine the composition, source and fate of sediment bound contaminants including PCBs, PBDEs, PAHs, plastics and emerging pharmaceuticals of concern.
  2. Quantify coastal sediment budgets and the contribution of fluvial, bluff, beach and littoral sources to mixed sediment shorelines.
  3. Evaluate the role of sediment resuspension by waves and tidal currents in remobilizing legacy contaminants in coastal sediments to then inform the bioavailability of undersired contaminants to valued forage fish, salmonids, and shellfish.
  4. Characterize flow and sediment attenuation by submerged aquatic vegetation and their potential for concentrating undesired sediment-bound contaminants in critical forage fish and salmon nursery and rearing habitats.
  5. Assess the effects of fluvial and nearshore turbidity on light availability for submerged aquatic vegetation that are essential spawning and rearing habitat for many species.

USGS Puget Sound Coastal Storm Modeling System (PS-CoSMoS)
With support of US EPA, NOAA, Tribal Communities, counties, and cities we are building the USGS Coastal Storm Modeling System across Puget Sound after its successful implementation across the State of California. PS-CoSMoS integrates hydrodynamic modeling of coastal storms, waves and stream flooding to evaluate the total water level and wave-related impacts that occur during extreme events with the aim of informing how coasts will be impacted by natural hazards with climate change and sea level rise. CoSMoS downscales future global climate change models to predict flooding and associated impacts of a range of future extreme event recurrence events (e.g. 1-yr, 20-yr, 100-yr) and the timing that existing and future planning thresholds will be exceeded.