CSUMB Watershed Geology Lab
Lab and Class Projects
Here are some ongoing projects in the Watershed Geology Lab and GEOL courses at CSUMB. If you have some other ideas for projects in these realms, don't hesitate to reach out to Dr. Guilinger!
Carmel River Geomorphic Monitoring
We have multiple projects related to the Carmel River centered around monitoring continued evolution of stream geomorphology and habitat following the 2015 San Clemente Dam Removal and River Reroute. This includes work funded by Monterey Peninsula Water Management District to survey long-term cross sections and estimate grain size following very effective flow events in WY2023. We plan to continue this work for the foreseeable future to build out a decades-long dataset on how lower impact dam removals impact salmonid habitat, flood risk, and build a further understanding of stream channel evolution in response to this restoration activity.
Santa Lucia Preserve
As a collaboration with Dr. John Olson's Watershed Environments and Ecology Lab, we assist with hydrological and water quality monitoring of streams on the 20,000 acre Santa Lucia Preserve as part of a contract with their conservancy. This collaboration also includes integration of GEOL 460 capstone projects to look at gully erosion problems on the preserve. Results from this work will support recommendations and funding for restoration of these sites.
Regional Landslide Monitoring
We have multiple projects related to landslide monitoring in the steep terrain around the Monterey Bay region.
-We have long-term earth flow and gully monitoring sites at Hudner Ranch in the Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area. This includes lidar, drone photogrammetry, and direct estimates of slide kinematics using precise positioning of steel pegs.
-As part of a capstone project, we monitored movement of an active slope instability threatening a popular trail for partners on Fort Ord National Monument. This work will help with decision-making on how to mitigate recreational impacts.
-We are monitoring shallow landslides in the 2020 Carmel Fire to further understand the relationship between fire and slope instability as landscapes recover following fire.
Monterey Bay Coastal Processes
Our work extends beyond terrestrial processes! We have two ongoing projects related to coastal geomorphology:
-In a collaboration with UC-Riverside and NOAA Marine Fisheries Service, we are continually monitoring the geomorphic evoltion of Scott Creek estuary near Davenport, CA following the 2020 CZU Complex Fire.
-We are leveraging USGS Plane Cam data and our own drone photogrammetry to build a high spatiotemproal resolution dataset of coastal retreat in the Southern Monterey Bay Littoral Cell. This work will assess the changes to coastal erosion following the closure of the 2020 Cemex Lapis sand mine (the final coastal sand mine in the US).
Publications and Presentations
Peer-reviewed
Duro, A. M., Hirmas, D. R., Ajami, H., Billings, S. A., Zhang, X., Li, L., Guilinger, J, et al. (2023). Topographic Correction of Visible Near‐Infrared Reflectance Spectra for Horizon‐Scale Soil Organic Carbon Mapping. Soil Science Society of America Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20612
Guilinger, J. J., Foufoula-Georgiou, E., Gray, A. B., Randerson, J. T., Smyth, P., Barth, N. C., & Goulden, M. L. (2023). Predicting Postfire Sediment Yields of Small Steep Catchments Using Airborne Lidar Differencing. Geophysical Research Letters, 50(16). https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104626
Burberry, C.M., Flatley, A., Gray, A., Guilinger, J., Hamshaw, S., Hill, K., Mu, Y., Rowland, J.C. (2022). Earth and Planetary Surface Processes Perspectives on Integrated, Coordinated, Open, Networked (ICON) Science. Earth and Space Science. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EA002414
Jumps, N., Gray, A.B., Guilinger, J.J., Cowger, W.C. (2022). Wildfire Impacts on the Persistent Suspended Sediment Dynamics of the Ventura River, CA. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2022.101096.
Honious, S.A., Hale, R.L., Guilinger, J.J., Crosby, B.T., Baxter, C. (2021). Geomorphology and turbidity structure discontinuities in the rates and controls of metabolism along a 75-km stream segment Ecosystems. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-021-00661-5.
Cowger, W., Gray, A.B., Guilinger, J.J., Fong, B.T., Waldschläger, K. (2021). Concentration Depth Profiles of Microplastic Particles in River Flow and Implications for Surface Sampling. Environmental Science and Technology. 10.1021/acs.est.1c01768.
Guilinger, J.J., Gray, A.B., Barth, N.C., Fong, B.T. (2020). The evolution of sediment sources over a sequence of post-fire sediment-laden flows revealed through repeat high-resolution change detection. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. 125(10), e2020JF005527.
Conference presentations
Charleton, E., Irvine, L., Guilinger, J. J., & Gray, A. B. (2023). Quantifying post-fire estuarine marsh platform sediment dynamics in response to post-fire runoff and flooding events. American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
Porras-Vargas, A., Villa Alvarado, M., Charleton, E., Guilinger, J. J., & Smith, D. (2023). CREEPY HILLSLOPES: MULTIMETHOD ANALYSIS OF EARTHFLOWS IN HOLLISTER, CA. Geological Society of America Connects Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA.
Guilinger, J. J., Foufoula-Georgiou, E., Gray, A. B., Randerson, J. T., Smyth, P., Barth, N. C., & Goulden, M. L. 2023. UTILIZING REPEAT AIRBORNE LIDAR FOR PREDICTION OF POST-FIRE SEDIMENT YIELD FROM SMALL STEEP DRAINAGES. Geological Society of America Connects Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA.