Skip to main content

Timothy Cook

thumbnail
Understanding Sediment Availability to Reduce Tidal Marsh Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise in the Northeast
Tidal marshes along the Atlantic coastline provide critical habitat for a wide variety of wildlife, help protect coastal ecosystems by filtering excess nutrients and pollutants, and serve as a buffer against coastal erosion and flooding. However, these important habitats and the species that rely on them are threatened by rising sea levels. Resource managers from the National Park Service Northeast Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region, and the state of Massachusetts have expressed a need for a scientific analysis of the vulnerability of these salt marshes to sea level rise. The supply of sediment to marshes is a critical factor controlling marsh survival and adaptability to rising sea levels....
thumbnail
Climate Change Impacts on Erosion, Mass Wasting, and the Supply of Sediment to Tidal Wetlands in the Northeast
Overview Climate change is likely to impact erosion rates, the magnitude and frequency of extreme rainfall/mass wasting events, and the accumulation of sediment in coastal areas. However, long-term rates of erosion and sediment delivery to coastal systems are poorly constrained and there is limited understanding of the relative effects of climate change versus land-use change on these processes. Furthermore, existing instrumental and historical observations are inadequate for constraining the frequency of extreme events and evaluating the potential for changes in the magnitude and frequency of these events through time. This project will bolster two distinct but related research projects: (1) an ongoing study...
thumbnail
Vertical accretion and elevation change of marshes is a critical factor controlling marsh survival and adaptability to rising sea levels. A wide variety of existing methods have been employed to measure accretion and elevation change in marshes on time scales ranging from weeks to centuries on many individual marshes located throughout the coastal northeastern United States. This dataset is a compilation of marsh accretion and elevation change rates compiled from a total of 27 published studies and 3 data sets published from 1975 through 2021, yielding a total of 292 individual estimates of marsh accretion or elevation change. The database includes: measurements of marsh surface elevation change from repeat surveys...
thumbnail
A critical factor controlling marsh survival and adaptability to rising sea level is an adequate supply of sediment for supporting upward growth of marshes, yet sediment availability and the factors that control its delivery to marshes remain poorly constrained. This dataset includes the results of sediment trap deployments and accompanying water level recordings from 9 coastal salt marshes in the northeastern United States. Sediment traps were deployed seasonally, with individual spring, summer, and fall deployment periods over the course of 2020-2021. The distribution of study sites spans differences in tidal range, wave climate, sea surface temperature, and assemblages of marine organisms. Additionally, these...
ScienceBase brings together the best information it can find about USGS researchers and offices to show connections to publications, projects, and data. We are still working to improve this process and information is by no means complete. If you don't see everything you know is associated with you, a colleague, or your office, please be patient while we work to connect the dots. Feel free to contact sciencebase@usgs.gov.