ALBERT

Description: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution January 1999

Description: Channel-fill sediments located in shallow-water off the south shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, provide a record of the late-Pleistocene and Holocene geological evolution in a post-glacial setting. Though conventionally difficult to sample adequately and anticipated to have low preservation potential, channel-fill sequences record in some detail differing relative sea-level and sedimentation processes. Two distinct channel-fill sequences record differing sequence stratigraphies, and hence different origins and post glacial histories. These sequences have accumulated in channels eroded into two different late-Pleistocene glacial units. The first fill-type was encountered in channels on the upper portions of the channel network in northern half of the study site. Channels in this portion of the channel system were incised into the late-Pleistocene glacial outwash substrate by spring sapping Uchupi and Oldale, 1994. The channel-fill sequences are comprised of a transgressive systems tract composed of a consistent sequence of coastal embayment and shoreline facies that have succeeded one another in response to Holocene relative sea-level rise. As relative sea-level flooded these paleo-channels, marsh environments were established in response to rising relative sea-level. With continued sea-level rise, the marsh environments migrated farther up channel. The exposed paleo-channels continued to flood, accommodating quiet water coastal embayments, likely protected from wave action by barrier beaches located more seaward. As relative sea-level rise continued, the coastline was driven landward over regions within the paleo-channels that formerly accommodated marsh and embayment sedimentation. The landward migration of the coastline was indicated by beach and barrier facies that covered the fine grained coastal embayment sediments. With further relative sea-level rise, beach and barrier settings were eroded as the shoreface migrated farther landward and nearshore marine deposition by wave and tidal flows ensued. Sedimentary environments similar to those recorded in the channels are found in modern coastal embayments on the south shore of Cape Cod. The second channel-fill type, which forms part of the southern and western portion of the channel network is more difficult to relate to the previously described sequence. The channels that contain fill were not adequately defined in this survey but were probably incised during the late-Pleistocene in response to ice melting and retreat. The sediments that make up this channel-fill are composed mainly of late-Pleistocene glaciolacustrine silts and clays. Sediments that make up the Holocene transgressive systems tract are limited to the upper meter of this channel sequence. They are composed of two sand units that reflect Holocene beach and nearshore sedimentation. The absence of coastal embayment and other paralic facies from the systems tract suggests that these channels did not accommodate protected embayments or that these sediments were not well preserved during the submergence of this region. Changes in the channel orientation or in the rate of relative sea-level rise may have contributed to this difference in sediment fill.

Description: While conducting this research the author was partially supported as a National Science Foundation Coastal Trainee WHOI # 85412900. Funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation WHOI # 25903900 and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Education Office WHOI # 45050 also supported this work.

Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Wildlife Society Bulletin 41 (2017): 666–677, doi:10.1002/wsb.820.

Description: Understanding patterns of habitat selection across a species’ geographic distribution can be critical for adequately managing populations and planning for habitat loss and related threats. However, studies of habitat selection can be time consuming and expensive over broad spatial scales, and a lack of standardized monitoring targets or methods can impede the generalization of site-based studies. Our objective was to collaborate with natural resource managers to define available nesting habitat for piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) throughout their U.S. Atlantic coast distribution from Maine to North Carolina, with a goal of providing science that could inform habitat management in response to sea-level rise. We characterized a data collection and analysis approach as being effective if it provided low-cost collection of standardized habitat-selection data across the species’ breeding range within 1–2 nesting seasons and accurate nesting location predictions. In the method developed, 〉30 managers and conservation practitioners from government agencies and private organizations used a smartphone application, “iPlover,” to collect data on landcover characteristics at piping plover nest locations and random points on 83 beaches and barrier islands in 2014 and 2015. We analyzed these data with a Bayesian network that predicted the probability a specific combination of landcover variables would be associated with a nesting site. Although we focused on a shorebird, our approach can be modified for other taxa. Results showed that the Bayesian network performed well in predicting habitat availability and confirmed predicted habitat preferences across the Atlantic coast breeding range of the piping plover. We used the Bayesian network to map areas with a high probability of containing nesting habitat on the Rockaway Peninsula in New York, USA, as an example application. Our approach facilitated the collation of evidence-based information on habitat selection from many locations and sources, which can be used in management and decision-making applications. © 2017 The Authors. Wildlife Society Bulletin published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Wildlife Society.

Description: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Department of Interior Hurricane Sandy Recovery Program; North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative; U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program