20. Integrating Sediment Dynamics and Ecosystem Processes in Coastal Environments

Increasing human activity along the coast has resulted in significant modifications of the natural processes that form and maintain healthy nearshore habitats supporting fish and wildlife populations. Urbanization and shoreline development of bluffs, beaches, mudflats, kelp and eelgrass beds, salt marshes, gravel spits and estuaries have led to losses, degradation, and fragmentation of nearshore habitats. Filling, dredging, shoreline armoring, waste and wastewater disposal, non-point source pollution, drainage and flood controls have all contributed to significant environmental change that affects nearshore ecosystem processes. These changes affect ecosystem services that supply food and nutrients to marine life, alter beach sediment supply and movement, and influence the flow and quality of surface and ground water. The modification or degradation of nearshore processes may be linked to the high incidence of endangered or threatened species that inhabit the nearshore zone of many U.S. bays and estuaries.

This postdoctoral research opportunity will entail interdisciplinary and collaborative field studies of nearshore geological or sedimentary processes and ecosystem function, as well as modeling studies of integrated geological, biological, and hydrological coastal processes. The postdoctoral fellow will be part of a team of researchers addressing sediment dynamics and coastal habitat issues in Puget Sound, Washington.

In Puget Sound, a new multidisciplinary project is examining both fundamental and applied research questions to help State and local partners identify significant ecosystem problems within the Sound and evaluate potential solutions to restore and preserve critical nearshore habitat. The coastal habitat of Puget Sound is diverse, including bluff-backed sand and gravel beaches, sandy spits, small and large river deltas and estuaries, intertidal wetlands, and subtidal seagrass beds. Research will be conducted to understand multiple scales of variability in nearshore processes, from the natural influence of storms, seasonal changes, climate variability, and catastrophic disturbances like floods, landslides, or volcanic eruptions, in comparison with human influences (e.g., shoreline armoring) on ecosystem processes. Opportunities will be available to collect new data in the field, such as short-term process measurements or sediment cores to examine paleo-ecological variability, as well as to use existing data sets such as high-resolution elevation data from topographic and bathymetric lidar.

Interdisciplinary projects might address:

1. Developing methods to measure or quantify sediment accumulation and transport in various coastal environments including mixed sediment-size beaches or deltas on time scales of events to decades to quantify impacts to habitat
2. Linking sedimentologic and stratigraphic change on decadal to millennial time scales to process studies to reconstruct habitat evolution and change
3. Modeling shoreline or marsh erosion and accretion patterns surrounding planned (or past) restoration projects (dike removal, channel opening)

The successful postdoctoral fellow would be at the forefront of interdisciplinary research discovering and quantifying linkages between sedimentary processes and ecosystem function, conducting research on important scientific issues being addressed by the USGS.

Proposed Duty Station: Menlo Park, CA

Areas of Ph.D.: Geological or biological oceanography, geology, bio-engineering, coastal engineering, intertidal marine or estuarine ecology, or related field

Qualifications: Applicants must meet one of the following qualifications: Research Geologist, Research Oceanographer, Research Biologist, Research Engineer

(This type of research is performed by those who have backgrounds for the occupations stated above. However, other titles may be applicable depending on the applicant's background, education, and research proposal. The final classification of the position will be made by the Personnel specialist.)

Research Advisor(s): Guy Gelfenbaum, (650) 329-5483, ggelfenbaum@usgs.gov; Peter Ruggiero, (650) 329-5433, pruggiero@usgs.gov; Jonathan Warrick, (650) 329-5376, jwarrick@usgs.gov; Jessica Lacy, (831) 427-4720, x 5502, jlacy@usgs.gov; Eric Grossman, (831) 427-4725, egrossman@usgs.gov; Charles ("Si") Simenstad (University of Washington), (206) 543-7185, simenstd@u.washington.edu

Personnel Office contact: Marie Guillory, (650) 329-4112, guillory@usgs.gov

Summary of Opportunities