DGS Projects

Assessing spatial distributions and vulnerability of stored soil carbon in St. Jones and Blackbird Marshes

Project Contact(s)

Delaware is home to extensive networks of tidal marshes, which provide an array of critical ecosystem services including carbon sequestration. These marshes accumulate carbon due to their relatively high plant productivity and relatively low rates of litter decomposition.

Water in the Changing Coastal Environment of Delaware (Project WiCCED)

Project Contact(s)

Water in the Changing Coastal Environment of Delaware (Project WiCCED) is a multi-year National Science Foundation EPSCoR – funded effort that includes a consortium of scientists and educators from University of Delaware (UD), Delaware State University, Wesley College, and Delaware Technical and

Morphology and Tidal Inundation of Tidal Wetlands in the Delaware Estuary

Project Contact(s)

An expanse of tidal wetlands fringes the Delaware Estuary and provides Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey with abundant ecosystem services including habitat for indigenous and migrating plants and wildlife, biogeochemical cycling of nutrients, preserving water quality, flood hazard mitigation

Creation of Improved Accuracy LiDAR-Based Digital Elevation Models for the St. Jones River and Blackbird Creek Watersheds

Project Contact(s)
In tidal wetlands, the high density of vegetation cover inhibits penetration of LiDAR pulses through the vegetation to the ground surface and low vegetation heights inhibit classification of ground point elevations. This project identities and corrects for biases found in the St. Jones and Blackbird Reserves using GPS RTK surveying and statistical analysis.