USGS Coastal Landscape Change Products Help the U.S. Department of Defense Safeguard Military Infrastructure Along the Coast
We Make Treasure Maps: USGS Charts the Seafloor to Help Locate Critical Minerals, Precious Metals, and Other Vital Resources
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Newsletter: January-March 2025
Sharing science stories, popular social media posts, recent publications, fieldwork activities, and more center happenings.
Sharing science stories, popular social media posts, recent publications, fieldwork activities, and more center happenings.
Sound Waves Newsletter
Explore coastal and marine science from across the USGS in Sound Waves.
Explore coastal and marine science from across the USGS in Sound Waves.
Valuable Data Collected on M7.0 Earthquake Offshore Cape Mendocino, California
Successful deployment and retrieval of Rapid Response Ocean Bottom Seismographs represents significant advancement in natural hazards research
Successful deployment and retrieval of Rapid Response Ocean Bottom Seismographs represents significant advancement in natural hazards research
Get Ready to Explore the Deep Sea: SEABOSS 3.0 is Coming
Approaching Storms
Discover USGS tools that forecast storms and report coastal conditions for emergency management
Discover USGS tools that forecast storms and report coastal conditions for emergency management
Traversing the Sea for Science
How USGS Uses the Federal Fleet to Study Natural Hazards, Resources, and More
How USGS Uses the Federal Fleet to Study Natural Hazards, Resources, and More
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center is one of three centers serving the mission of the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program—the primary Federal marine geology and physical science research program responsible for the Nation’s entire coastal and marine landscape.
Research
Research
Read about our science projects, find out where we are working and why it matters
News
Publications
Ecological thresholds and transformations due to climate change: The role of abiotic stress Ecological thresholds and transformations due to climate change: The role of abiotic stress
An ecological threshold is the point at which a comparatively small environmental change triggers an abrupt and disproportionately large ecological response. In the face of accelerating climate change, there is concern that abrupt ecosystem transformations will become more widespread as critical ecological thresholds are crossed. There has been ongoing debate, however, regarding the...
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Ecosystems Mission Area, California Water Science Center, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Southwest Biological Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Western Geographic Science Center, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center
Distribution and disturbances of ditches across salt marshes of the Northeast U.S. with implications for management and restoration Distribution and disturbances of ditches across salt marshes of the Northeast U.S. with implications for management and restoration
Effective management of valuable coastal systems, such as salt marshes requires an understanding of the complex stressors influencing their continued threat of drowning. However, efforts to determine the effects of one potential stressor, ditches, have produced diverging results complicating management efforts. Ditches (linear trenches dug to drain salt marshes for agriculture and...
Tracking diagenetic alteration of magnetic susceptibility in thrust ridge and slope basin sediments of the Cascadia margin (ODP Sites 1249 and 1252; IODP Site U1325) Tracking diagenetic alteration of magnetic susceptibility in thrust ridge and slope basin sediments of the Cascadia margin (ODP Sites 1249 and 1252; IODP Site U1325)
We investigated sediment core records from the Cascadia Margin (Ocean Drilling Program Sites 1249 and 1252 at Hydrate Ridge; Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Site U1325 offshore Vancouver Island) using a Zr/Rb heavy mineral proxy from X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning to identify intervals of primary detrital magnetic susceptibility (κ) and predict intervals where diagenesis caused...
Science
Seafloor Benthic Mapping and Characterization: Enhancing our Understanding of Aleutian Islands’ Hazards, Potential Seabed Minerals and Deep Corals
A USGS-led expedition in the Aleutian Arc off Alaska will provide critical information on energy resources, underwater earthquakes and other hazards, seafloor habitats, and biological resources, including key fisheries, as well as potential seabed minerals.
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Land Management Research Program, Species Management Research Program, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Deep Sea Exploration, Mapping and Characterization
Coastal Wetland Vulnerability to Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise: Understanding Ecological Thresholds and Ecosystem Transformations
Eighteen USGS coastal scientists from all four coasts of the conterminous United States are working together to advance the understanding of climate change and sea-level rise impacts to coastal wetlands.
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California Water Science Center, Chesapeake Bay Activities, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Great Lakes Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Western Geographic Science Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Environmental Impacts following the 1970 Testing of Seabed Mining Equipment on the Blake Plateau- Quantification of Benthic Communities Across Disturbance Gradients
USGS researchers will characterize the ecology of benthic communities associated with deep-sea environments, including hardground features and adjacent soft sediments, and will build upon previous work conducted in areas off the U.S. east coast under consideration for oil and gas leases.