URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Fall_2015_Melissa-McCarthy

Engelhart was recently part of a URI-led team that received a two-year, $870,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency program. This project aims to make coastal Rhode Island communities better able to cope with hazards such as sea-level rise and coastal storms. Engelhart’s role is to determine which of the state’s salt marshes have been more resilient over thousands of years and, therefore, may be better able to withstand future sea-level rise. A key focus of this project is to engage youth in the scientific research. Engelhart has teamed up with Earthwatch Institute, an international environmental charity that helps a wider population to get involved in research through programs led by scientists. Through a grant from the Durfee Foundation, Earthwatch runs the IGNITE program. This program enables about 50 high school students a year from the Los Angeles region to participate in two-week residential research projects working with a designated scientist; Engelhart leads one project every summer. This year, eight high school students worked at Fox Hill and Marsh Meadows salt marshes in Jamestown, R.I. with Engelhart, collecting data that will enable him and his students to produce a new high-resolution reconstruction of sea-level variability during the past 3,000 years. They collected samples of present day salt marsh sediment to understand the distributions of foraminifera within Rhode Island salt marshes as well as 3-meter cores of ancient salt marsh sediment. Analysis of the data is commencing as part of a master’s thesis. The project will return to Rhode Island next summer to collect further samples from new sites in the Ocean State. “The more data we collect, the better idea we will have of how sea level changed in the past in Rhode Island and which salt marshes were able to withstand sea-level rise and survive over time,” says Engelhart. “This will help us better manage this important resource under the significant sea-level rise forecast during the 21st century and beyond.”

Simon Engelhart Assistant Professor, Geosciences

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