Mapping ocean floor, underwater habitats after Hurricane Sandy
Left
to right, Casey Hearn and Monique LaFrance Bartley, both GSO doctoral students;
Sean Scannell, a 2016 graduate of marine affairs at URI; Nicholas Englehart and
Mitchell Kennedy, who both graduated from URI in 2016 with degrees in
geological oceanography. Photo courtesy of Monique LaFrance Bartley.
Hurricane Sandy destroyed hundreds of houses and other
properties when it struck the Atlantic coast four years ago. But few realize
that the storm also disturbed the seafloor, altering underwater landscapes.
Researchers
and students at the University of Rhode Island have mapped the ocean floor at
one of several national parks along the East Coast to examine any changes—and
have also created an online multimedia story so the public can follow their
work.
“The Big Reveal: Developing Habitat Maps of the Seafloor of Key
Coastal Natural Resources” provides a behind-the-scenes look
through interactive maps, photos, graphics, text and more of the research by
John King, a URI oceanography professor, and his students.
“The initial step in effectively managing submerged natural resources is to have an accurate and detailed understanding of what resources you actually have,” says King. “Our project is providing that knowledge about the study sites to the National Park Service for the first time.”
Researchers
and students from King’s laboratory in the Graduate School of Oceanography and
from URI Professor Caroline Gottschalk Druschke’s Society, Ecology and
Communication Laboratory collaborated to create “The Big Reveal.” Druschke has
a joint appointment in URI’s Department of Writing and Rhetoric and Department
of Natural Resources Science.
Hurricane
Sandy hit the coast Oct. 29, 2012, killing at least 233 people and causing billions
in damages. The storm’s impact on land has been well-documented, but there
isn’t much information about how the hurricane changed ecosystems on the ocean
floor.
By
creating detailed maps of submerged habitats, researchers will be able to
compare this baseline data with subsequent data collected in the future after
another hurricane. The research will help scientists better understand how
future storms may affect these important natural environments, with ecological,
commercial and recreational implications.
The
research could also be helpful in studies of seafloor changes caused by
sea-level rise, ocean warming and pollution.
Researchers
used acoustic sonars, remote-controlled underwater vehicles and other
cutting-edge technology to gather information. They also took photos and
collected sediment samples.
Acoustic
sonars were especially useful in the research. Sonars send pulses of sound to
the seafloor and track the amount of time it takes for the sound to bounce
back, calculating and collecting measurements of water depth.
They also measure
the sound’s intensity, producing an image similar to a black-and-white
photograph. Sonars can detect large geological features, including mudflats,
seagrass beds and coral reefs.
Mapping
of underwater habitats took place in four national parks affected by Hurricane
Sandy: Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts; Assateague Island National
Seashore in Maryland; Fire Island National Seashore in New York; and part of
Gateway National Recreation Area in New Jersey. The URI team examined the Fire
Island waters.
Significant
portions of all four parks are submerged: 75 percent of Fire Island National
Seashore’s area is under water; and 67 percent of Gateway National Recreation
Area is submerged. Thirty-eight percent of the Cape Cod National Seashore is
under water.
The
research was funded as part of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s
post-Hurricane Sandy recovery projects. Besides URI, the other institutions
participating are the University of Delaware, Rutgers University and the Center
for Coastal Studies in Massachusetts.
“Habitat
mapping helps us better understand the ecosystem as a whole and how it’s
resilient to or vulnerable to change,” says Monique LaFrance Bartley, a
doctoral student at GSO who is working on the project. Knowing the condition of
the seafloor is important: it shapes the ecosystem, from the size of sediment
grains to the health of marine invertebrates, like clams.
Jamie
Remillard, a doctoral student in rhetoric and composition at URI and co-creator
of “The Big Reveal,” says it was exciting to create the online multimedia site.
“It’s
important people understand the value of this research,” says Remillard. “ ‘The
Big Reveal’ is informative, and it also connects people with science that
matters in an engaging, interactive way. Making that sort of connection is
key.”