Geology topics

J.B. Logan

Publications and source records attributed to J.B. Logan.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2013

Rapid fluctuations in flow and water-column properties in Asan Bay, Guam: implications for selective resilience of coral reefs in warming seas

Hydrodynamics and water-column properties were investigated off west-central Guam from July 2007 through January 2008. Rapid fluctuations, on time scales of 10s of min, in currents, temperature, salinity, and acoustic backscatter were observed to occur on sub-diurnal frequencies along more than 2 km of the fore reef but not at the reef crest. During periods characterized by higher sea-surface temperatures (SSTs), weaker wind forcing, smaller ocean surface waves, and greater thermal stratification, rapid decreases in temperature and concurrent rapid increases in salinity and acoustic backscatter coincided with onshore-directed near-bed currents and offshore-directed near-surface currents. During the study, these cool-water events, on average, lasted 2.3 h and decreased the water temperature 0.57 °C, increased the salinity 0.25 PSU, and were two orders of magnitude more prevalent during the summer season than the winter. During the summer season when the average satellite-derived SST anomaly was +0.63 °C, these cooling events, on average, lowered the temperature 1.14 °C along the fore reef but only 0.11 °C along the reef crest. The rapid shifts appear to be the result of internal tidal bores pumping cooler, more saline, higher-backscatter oceanic water from depths >50 m over cross-shore distances of 100 s of m into the warmer, less saline waters at depths of 20 m and shallower. Such internal bores appear to have the potential to buffer shallow coral reefs from predicted increases in SSTs by bringing cool, offshore water to shallow coral environments. These cooling internal bores may also provide additional benefits to offset stress such as supplying food to thermally stressed corals, reducing stress due to ultraviolet radiation and/or low salinity, and delivering coral larvae from deeper reefs not impacted by surface thermal stress. Thus, the presence of internal bores might be an important factor locally in the resilience of select coral reefs facing increased thermal stress.

Coral Reefs↗

USGS2011

Channel evolution on the dammed Elwha River, Washington, USA

Like many rivers in the western U.S., the Elwha River, Washington, has changed substantially over the past century in response to natural and human forcing. The lower river is affected by two upstream dams that are slated for removal as part of a major river restoration effort. In preparation for studying the effects of dam removal, we present a comprehensive field and aerial photographic analysis of dam influence on an anabranching, gravel-bed river. Over the past century with the dams in place, loss of the upstream sediment supply has caused spatial variations in the sedimentary and geomorphic character of the lower Elwha River channel. Bed sediment is armored and better sorted than on the naturally evolving bed upstream of the dams. On time scales of flood seasons, the channel immediately below the lower dam is fairly stable, but progresses toward greater mobility downstream such that the lowermost portion of the river responded to a recent 40-year flood with bank erosion and bed-elevation changes on a scale approaching that of the natural channel above the dams. In general, channel mobility in the lowest 4 km of the Elwha River has not decreased substantially with time. Enough fine sediment remains in the floodplain that – given sufficient flood forcing – the channel position, sinuosity, and braiding index change substantially. The processes by which this river accesses new fine sediment below the dams (rapid migration into noncohesive banks and avulsion of new channels) allow it to compensate for loss of upstream sediment supply more readily than would a dammed river with cohesive banks or a more limited supply of alluvium. The planned dam removal will provide a valuable opportunity to evaluate channel response to the future restoration of natural upstream sediment supply.

Washington↗

USGS2009

Supply and dispersal of flood sediment from a steep, tropical watershed: Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii, USA

In contrast to many small, mountainous watersheds in temperate coastal regions, where fluvial discharge and wave energy commonly coincide, deposition and reworking of tropical flood sediment can be seasonally decoupled, and this has important implications for coral-reef ecosystems. An understanding of the interaction between tropical flood sedimentation and wave climate is essential to identifying and mitigating effects of watershed changes on coral reefs as urbanization and climate change proceed. Sedimentary facies and isotopic properties of sediment in Hanalei Bay, on the island of Kaua'i, Hawai'i, USA, were used to assess deposition and reworking of flood deposits from the Hanalei River in a case study demonstrating the potential ecosystem effects of runoff from a steep, tropical watershed. In Hanalei Bay, the youngest and thickest terrigenous sediment was consistently present near the river mouth and in a bathymetric depression that acted as at least a temporary sediment sink. During this 2 yr study, the largest flood events occurred in late winter and spring 2006; substantial terrestrial sediment delivered by those floods still remained in the bay as of June 2006 because oceanic conditions were not sufficiently energetic to transport all of the sediment offshore. Additional sediment was deposited in the bay by a summer 2006 flood that coincided with seasonal low wave energy. In most years, flood sediment accumulating in the bay and on its fringing reefs would be remobilized and advected out of the bay during winter, when the wave climate is energetic. Turbidity and sedimentation on corals resulting from late spring and summer floods during low wave energy could have a greater impact on coral-reef ecosystems than floods in other seasons, an effect that could be exacerbated if the incidence and sediment load of tropical summer floods increase due to urbanization and climate change.

Hawaii↗

USGS2006

Cross-shore velocity shear, eddies and heterogeneity in water column properties over fringing coral reefs: West Maui, Hawaii

A multi-day hydrographic survey cruise was conducted to acquire spatially extensive, but temporally limited, high-resolution, three-dimensional measurements of currents, temperature, salinity and turbidity off West Maui in the summer of 2003 to better understand coastal dynamics along a complex island shoreline with coral reefs. These data complement long-term, high-resolution tide, wave, current, temperature, salinity and turbidity measurements made at a number of fixed locations in the study area starting in 2001. Analyses of these hydrographic data, in conjunction with numerous field observations, evoke the following conceptual model of water and turbidity flux along West Maui. Wave- and wind-driven flows appear to be the primary control on flow over shallower portions of the reefs while tidal and subtidal currents dominate flow over the outer portions of the reefs and insular shelf. When the direction of these flows counter one another, which is quite common, they cause a zone of cross-shore horizontal shear and often form a front, with turbid, lower-salinity water inshore of the front and clear, higher-salinity water offshore of the front. It is not clear whether these zones of high shear and fronts are the cause or the result of the location of the fore reef, but they appear to be correlated alongshore over relatively large horizontal distances (orders of kilometers). When two flows converge or when a single flow is bathymetrically steered, eddies can be generated that, in the absence of large ocean surface waves, tend to accumulate material. Areas of higher turbidity and lower salinity tend to correlate with regions of poor coral health or the absence of well-developed reefs, suggesting that the oceanographic processes that concentrate and/or transport nutrients, contaminants, low-salinity water or suspended sediment might strongly influence coral reef ecosystem health and sustainability.

Continental Shelf Research↗