Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) conducted a time-series collection of shallow sediment cores from the back-barrier environments along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana from March 2012 through July 2013. The sampling efforts were part of a larger USGS study to evaluate the effects on the geomorphology of the Chandeleur Islands following the construction of an artificial sand berm in response to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of the back-barrier tidal and wetland environments to the berm. This report serves as an archive for sedimentological, radiochemical, and microbiological data derived from the sediment cores. Data is available for a time-series of four sampling periods: March 2012, July 2013, September 2012, and July 2013. Data is available in downloadable spreadsheet, Joint Photographic Experts Group and Portable Document File formats. Additional files included: ArcGIS shape files of the study sites, detailed results of sediment grain size analyses, and formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FDGC) metadata.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center collected a set of sediment cores from the back-barrier environments along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, in March 2012. The sampling efforts were part of a larger USGS study to evaluate effects on the geomorphology of the Chandeleur Islands following the construction of an artificial sand berm to reduce oil transport onto federally managed lands. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of the back-barrier tidal and wetland environments to the berm. This report serves as an archive for sedimentological and radiochemical data derived from the sediment cores. The data described in this report is available for download.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center collected a set of sediment cores from the back-barrier environments along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, in March 2012. The sampling efforts were part of a larger USGS study to evaluate effects on the geomorphology of the Chandeleur Islands following the construction of an artificial sand berm to reduce oil transport onto federally managed lands. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of the back-barrier tidal and wetland environments to the berm. This report serves as an archive for sedimentological and radiochemical data derived from the sediment cores. The data described in this report is available for download.

The influence of tropical and extratropical cyclones on coastal wetlands and marshes is highly variable in both space and time and depends on a number of climatic, geologic, and physical variables. The impacts storms can be either positive or negative with respect to the wetland and marsh ecosystems. Small to moderate amounts of inorganic sediment added during storms or other events helps to abate pressure from sea-level rise. However, if the volume of sediment is large and the resulting deposits thick, the organic substrate may compact causing submergence and a loss in elevation. Similarly, thick deposits of coarse inorganic sediment may also alter the hydrology of the site and impede vegetative processes. Alternative impacts associated with storms include shoreline erosion at the marsh edge as well as potential emergence. Predicting the outcome of these various responses and potential long-term implications can be obtained from a systematic assessment of both historical and recent event deposits. The objectives of this study are to 1) characterize the surficial sediment of the relict to recent washover fans and back-barrier marshes, and 2) characterize the sediment of 6 marsh cores from the back-barrier marshes and a single marsh island core near the mainland. These geologic data will be integrated with other remote sensing data collected along Assateague Island, Maryland / Virginia and assimilated into an assessment of coastal wetland response to storms.

This data release is an archive of sedimentary laboratory analytical data produced by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (USGS SPCMSC) for sediment cores and surface samples collected from coastal marshes in Georgia (GA), Virginia (VA), and Massachusetts (MA). Collaborators from USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (PWRC) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) collected these samples in South Altamaha, GA, Mockhorn Island, VA, Goodwin Island, VA and Laws Point, Plum Island Estuary, MA during a period spanning 2015 to 2019. This work provides the USGS and VIMS with the necessary data needed to assess the emergence rates (chronology and sedimentation rates) of coastal marshes at these locations. This publication includes data for marsh sediment cores and surface samples collected by collaborators at the USGS PWRC and VIMS from 2015-2019. Data products include site locations, loss on ignition and radiochemical data (alpha and gamma spectrometry), and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) conducted a time-series collection of shallow sediment cores from the back-barrier environments along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana from March 2012 through July 2013. The sampling efforts were part of a larger USGS study to evaluate the effects on the geomorphology of the Chandeleur Islands following the construction of an artificial sand berm in response to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of the back-barrier tidal and wetland environments to the berm. This report serves as an archive for sedimentological, radiochemical, and microbiological data derived from the sediment cores. Data is available for a time-series of four sampling periods: March 2012; July 2013; September 2012; and July 2013. Data is available in downloadable spreadsheet, Joint Photographic Experts Group and Portable Document File formats. Additional files included: ArcGIS shape files of the sample locations, detailed results of sediment grain size analyses, and formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FDGC) metadata.

As part of the Barrier Island Evolution Research (BIER) project, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) collected sediment samples from the northern Chandeleur Islands in March and September 2012. The overall objective of this project, which integrates geophysical (bathymetric, seismic, and topographic) and sedimentologic data, is to better understand the depositional and erosional processes that drive the morphologic evolution of barrier islands over annual to interannual timescales (1 to 5 years). Between June 2010 and April 2011, in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the State of Louisiana constructed a sand berm extending more than 14 kilometers (km) along the northern Chandeleur Islands platform. The construction of the berm provided a unique opportunity to investigate how this new sediment source will interact with and affect the morphologic evolution of the barrier-island system. Data collected from this study will be used to describe differences in the physical characteristics and spatial distribution of sediments both along the axis of the berm and also along transects across the berm and onto the adjacent barrier island. Comparison of these data with data from subsequent sampling efforts will provide information about sediment interactions and movement between the berm and the natural island platform, improving our understanding of short-term morphologic change and processes in this barrier-island system. This data series serves as an archive of sediment data collected in March and September 2012 from the Chandeleur Islands sand berm and adjacent barrier-island environments. Data products, including descriptive core logs, core photographs and x-radiographs, results of sediment grain-size analyses, sample location maps, and Geographic Information System (GIS) data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FDGC) metadata, can be downloaded from http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/850/data.html.

Barnegat Bay, located along the eastern shore of New Jersey, was significantly impacted by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed a multidisciplinary study of sediment transport and hydrodynamics to understand the mechanisms that govern estuarine and wetland responses to storm forcing. This report details the physical and chemical characteristics of surficial and downcore sediments from two areas within the bay. Eleven sites were sampled in both the central portion of the bay near Barnegat Inlet and in the southern portion of the bay in Little Egg Harbor. Laboratory analyses include Be-7, Pb-210, bulk density, porosity, x-radiographs, and grain-size distribution. These data will serve as a critical baseline dataset for understanding the current sedimentological regime and can be applied to future storms for understanding estuarine and wetland evolution. This report serves as an archive for sedimentological and radiochemical data derived from the surface sediments and box cores. Downloadable data are available as Excel spreadsheets, PDF files, and JPEG files, and includes sediment core data plots and x-radiographs, as well as, physical-properties, grain-size, alpha-spectoscopy, and gamma-spectroscopy data. Federal Geographic Data Committee metadata are available for analytical datasets in the data downloads page of this report.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) conducted a time-series collection of shallow sediment cores from the back-barrier environments along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana from March 2012 through July 2013. The sampling efforts were part of a larger USGS study to evaluate the effects on the geomorphology of the Chandeleur Islands following the construction of an artificial sand berm in response to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of the back-barrier tidal and wetland environments to the berm. This report serves as an archive for sedimentological, radiochemical, and microbiological data derived from the sediment cores. Data is available for a time-series of four sampling periods: March 2012; July 2013; September 2012; and July 2013. Data is available in downloadable spreadsheet, Joint Photographic Experts Group and Portable Document File formats. Additional files included: ArcGIS shape files of the study sites, detailed results of sediment grain size analyses, and formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FDGC) metadata.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) conducted a time-series collection of shallow sediment cores from the back-barrier environments along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana from March 2012 through July 2013. The sampling efforts were part of a larger USGS study to evaluate the effects on the geomorphology of the Chandeleur Islands following the construction of an artificial sand berm in response to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of the back-barrier tidal and wetland environments to the berm. This report serves as an archive for sedimentological, radiochemical, and microbiological data derived from the sediment cores. Data is available for a time-series of four sampling periods: March 2012; July 2013; September 2012; and July 2013. Data is available in downloadable spreadsheet, Joint Photographic Experts Group and Portable Document File formats. Additional files included: ArcGIS shape files of the study sites, detailed results of sediment grain size analyses, and formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FDGC) metadata.