Nathaniel G Plant

Barrier island geomorphology and seabeach amaranth metrics at 50-m alongshore transects, and 5-m cross-shore points for 2008 — Assateague Island, MD and VA.

Understanding how sea-level rise will affect coastal landforms and the species and habitats they support is critical for developing approaches that balance the needs of humans and native species. Given the magnitude of the threat posed by sea-level rise, and the urgency to better understand it, there is an increasing need to forecast sea-level rise effects on barrier islands. To address this problem, scientists in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology program are developing Bayesian networks as a tool to evaluate and to forecast the effects of sea-level rise on shoreline change, barrier island geomorphology, and habitat availability for species such as the piping plover (Charadrius melodus)...

Categories: Data; Tags: Assateague Island, Assateague Island, Assateague Island National Seashore, Assateague Island National Seashore, Atlantic Ocean, All tags... Barrier Island, Bayesian Network, CMHRP, Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, Coastal Erosion, Coastal Habitat, Coastal Hazards, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Coastal processes, Delmarva Peninsula, Erosion, GIS, Geographic Information Systems, MD, MHW, Maryland, Mean High Water, Mean Lower Low Water, North America, Probability, Sea Level Rise, Sea-level change, Shoreline Change, U.S. Geological Survey, USA, USGS, United States, VA, Virginia, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, coastal processes, environment, erosion, geographic information systems, geomorphology, geoscientificInformation, geospatial analysis, geospatial datasets, hazards, hazards, land use and land cover, sea-level change, transect sampling, Fewer tags

Florida is home to 50 endangered species, 23 National Wildlife Refuges, 9 national parks, and 119 state parks. Straddling both temperate and sub-tropical zones, the state is also unique in that it is a long and narrow peninsula, surrounded on three sides by warm water, creating a dynamic environment. The impacts of climate change, such as sea-level rise and severe storms, threaten the state’s unique biodiversity—yet managers are unsure how species will respond to these changes, which makes planning for the future difficult. In order to identify the impacts of climate change on Florida’s plants and wildlife, researchers developed regional climate scenarios identifying how temperature and precipitation patterns...

Categories: Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2009, CASC, Climate change, Completed, La Florida, All tags... National CASC, National CASC, Plants, Plants, Projects by Region, Science Project, Water, Coasts and Ice, Water, Coasts and Ice, Wetlands, Wetlands, Wildlife and Plants, Wildlife and Plants, biodiversity, climate models, land use and land cover, Fewer tags

The broad range of complex factors influencing coastal systems contribute to large uncertainties in predicting long-term sea level rise impacts. Researchers demonstrated the capabilities of a Bayesian network (BN) to predict long-term shoreline change associated with sea level rise and make quantitative assessments for predicting uncertainty. A BN was used to define relationships between driving forces, geologic constraints, and coastal response for the U.S. Atlantic coast that include observations of local rates of relative sea level rise, wave height, tide range, geomorphic classification, coastal slope, and shoreline change rate. The BN was used to make probabilistic predictions of shoreline retreat in response...

Categories: Map, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2011, CASC, Climate Change, Completed, Projects by Region, All tags... SERAP, Sea-Level Rise and Coasts, Sea-Level Rise and Coasts, Southeast, Southeast CASC, Water, Coasts and Ice, Water, Coasts and Ice, Fewer tags

In 2010, 39 percent of the U.S.population lived near the coast. This population is expected to increase by 8 percent from 2010 to 2020. Coastal regions are also home to species and habitats that provide critical services to humans, such as wetlands that buffer coasts from storms. Therefore, sea-level rise and the associated changes in coastlines challenge both human communities and ecosystems. Understanding which coastal lands will be vulnerable to sea-level rise is critical for policy makers, land-use planners, and coastal residents. Focusing on the coastal region from Virginia to Maine, researchers examined a range of different possible sea-level rise scenarios, combined with information on features of the coastal...

Categories: Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, Bayesian networks, CASC, Climate Change, Completed, All tags... Northeast, Northeast CASC, Northeast Climate Science Center, Projects by Region, Sea-Level Rise and Coasts, Sea-Level Rise and Coasts, Water, Coasts and Ice, Water, Coasts and Ice, Wetlands, Wetlands, coastal, decision-support tool, sea-level rise, Fewer tags

The Southeastern United States spans a broad range of physiographic settings and maintains exceptionally high levels of faunal diversity. Unfortunately, many of these ecosystems are increasingly under threat due to rapid human development, and management agencies are increasingly aware of the potential effects that climate change will have on these ecosystems. Natural resource managers and conservation planners can be effective at preserving ecosystems in the face of these stressors only if they can adapt current conservation efforts to increase the overall resilience of the system. Climate change, in particular, challenges many of the basic assumptions used by conservation planners and managers. Previous conservation...

Categories: Map, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service, Shapefile; Tags: 2011, Birds, Birds, CASC, Climate Change, All tags... Completed, LCC, Mammals, Mammals, Projects by Region, Rivers, Streams and Lakes, Rivers, Streams and Lakes, Sea-Level Rise and Coasts, Sea-Level Rise and Coasts, South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Southeast, Southeast CASC, Water, Coasts and Ice, Water, Coasts and Ice, Wildlife and Plants, Wildlife and Plants, Fewer tags