William & Mary ScholarWorks

Welcome! William & Mary ScholarWorks preserves and provides access to the research and creative output of William & Mary's faculty, staff, and students.

UPDATE 18th JUNE 2025: Our repository has migrated from Digital Commons to Open Repository DSpace as of this summer. Additional updates and improvements will continue through the Fall semester. Thank you for your patience during this transition.

Recent Submissions

Open Access
Spatial Extent and Vertical Structure of Marine Heatwaves in Chesapeake Bay: Relevant Model Output
(2025-12-19) Shunk, Nathan P.; Fernandes Mazzini, Piero Luigi; Walter, Ryan K.; Hinson, Kyle E.; St-Laurent, Pierre; Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M.; VIMS
Marine heatwaves (MHWs) adversely impact marine ecosystems globally, yet data scarcity limits understanding of their subsurface extent, particularly in estuaries. Using a high-resolution regional ocean model, we characterized the horizontal extent and subsurface structure of MHWs across the Chesapeake Bay (CB). Additionally, we developed a supplementary definition for local climatology-identified MHWs, “Vertical MHWs,” which quantifies their water column presence. Surface MHWs were generally shorter, more frequent and intense, and impacted ~5% of CB surface area, while the deepest MHWs were generally longer, less frequent and intense, and regularly occupied >50% of deep-water areas. Synchronous MHWs—a vertical MHW class which occur simultaneously in the surface and bottom sometime during their duration—were predominant in shallow regions (isobaths <9 m), which encompass ~75% of the CB. Conversely, asynchronous MHWs, which indicate surface-bottom discontinuity, dominated in deeper regions (isobaths >9 m) and occurred primarily during the highly stratified spring-summer season. High synchronicity in the shallow regions indicates a surface MHW signal likely reflects a concurrent bottom one, potentially impacting benthic communities, across the vast majority of CB. Meanwhile asynchronous events, which occur across CB, especially in deeper regions, suggest surface MHWs are inconsistent predictors of subsurface events and their vertical structure, highlighting the need for subsurface monitoring of extreme events to better understand, predict, and manage MHW impacts on coastal and estuarine ecosystems. This is the repository for this work.
Open Access
Pelagic primary production and respiration in Mobjack Bay, VA, 2023-2025
(2025-12-19) Blachman, Sara A.; Brush, Mark J.; VIMS
Virginia’s aquaculture industry is dependent on an adequate food supply derived chiefly from primary production by phytoplankton. Limited food availability can reduce the growth and potential harvest of cultured bivalves at high planting densities, and the effect of food limitation can vary seasonally. However, sustained measurements of phytoplankton primary production and respiration are rare, especially in the shallow, nearshore waters around the perimeter of the Chesapeake Bay where bivalve aquaculture is concentrated. To provide resource managers with information necessary to assess this critical control on the ecological and economic sustainability of the aquaculture industry, we measured rates of pelagic primary production and respiration monthly at six locations in Mobjack Bay, an embayment in the lower Chesapeake Bay with growing bivalve aquaculture activity. Rates were measured at two locations in the main bay and one location in each of its four tidal tributaries from March 2023 to March 2025.
Open Access
Pelagic primary production and respiration in Cherrystone Inlet, VA, 2021-2024
(2025-12-19) Blachman, Sara A.; Brush, Mark J.; VIMS
Virginia’s aquaculture industry is dependent on an adequate food supply derived chiefly from primary production by phytoplankton. Limited food availability can reduce the growth and potential harvest of cultured bivalves at high planting densities, and the effect of food limitation can vary seasonally. However, sustained measurements of phytoplankton primary production and respiration are rare, especially in the shallow, nearshore waters around the perimeter of the Chesapeake Bay where bivalve aquaculture is concentrated. To provide resource managers with information necessary to assess this critical control on the ecological and economic sustainability of the aquaculture industry, we measured rates of pelagic primary production and respiration monthly at three locations in Cherrystone Inlet, a tidal tributary in the lower Chesapeake Bay with extensive bivalve aquaculture. Rates were measured over the entire year in 2021 and 2024 and during the primary growing season in 2022 and 2023.
Open Access
2016 Sea Level Rise App Data Archive: All Data
(2016-11-29) Loftis, Jon
The Sea Level Rise mobile application is a free app on iOS and Android platforms that seeks to map tidal inundation and flooding attributed to storm surge. This archived GIS shape file dataset was from the beta release of the App on iOS, and it features GPS inundation extent data points collected worldwide including known inundation trouble spots via an early beta version of the free Sea Level Rise mobile app during Hurricane Hermine and Hurricane Matthew, as the two most significant flooding events of 2016 in Hampton Roads, VA. Timestamped GPS-reported high water marks were collected by volunteers to effectively trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the free Sea Level Rise mobile app in regular intervals along the water's edge. These data were used as the basis to eventually found Catch the King, the world’s largest environmental survey. Catch the King was founded as a collaborative effort to give members of the public an opportunity to engage personally in climate change adaptation. While the development of the Sea Level Rise app was led by Wetlands Watch and local tech company, Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive), the idea for creating a statewide program stems from the creative minds of Wetlands Watch’s former Executive Director, Skip Stiles, retired Virginian-Pilot reporter, Dave Mayfield, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) assistant professor, Dr. Derek Loftis. Throughout the year, trained tidal flood mappers use the free Sea Level Rise mobile application (iOS / Android) developed by Wetlands Watch and Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive) to walk the high water lines in public spaces near them to digitally trace GPS contours of the maximum extent of tidal flood waters. These data are shared publicly after the end of the mapping event and used as a public annual tidal calibration for the forecast predictions generated from VIMS' Tidewatch Map. Annually, a live tidal calibration of the forecasts driven from the Center for Coastal Resources Management's SCHISM hydrodynamic model (developed by Dr. Joseph Zhang) is conducted by the trained participatory scientists engaged with Catch the King, and analyzed by Dr. Loftis at VIMS.
Open Access
2015 Sea Level Rise App Data Archive: All Data
(2015-11-13) Loftis, Jon
The Sea Level Rise mobile application is a free app on iOS and Android platforms that seeks to map tidal inundation and flooding attributed to storm surge. This archived GIS shape file dataset was from the beta release of the App on iOS, and it features 3,515 GPS inundation extent data points collected in Norfolk, VA, via an early beta version of the free Sea Level Rise mobile app during 6 daily flooding events occurring every high tide from September 23-28, during the most significant flooding event of 2015 in Hampton Roads, VA. The event was caused by a nor’easter merging with Hurricane Joaquin. Timestamped GPS-reported high water marks were collected by volunteers to effectively trace the high water line by pressing the 'Save Data' button in the free Sea Level Rise mobile app in regular intervals along the water's edge. These data were used as the basis to eventually found Catch the King, the world’s largest environmental survey. Catch the King was founded as a collaborative effort to give members of the public an opportunity to engage personally in climate change adaptation. While the development of the Sea Level Rise app was led by Wetlands Watch and local tech company, Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive), the idea for creating a statewide program stems from the creative minds of Wetlands Watch’s former Executive Director, Skip Stiles, retired Virginian-Pilot reporter, Dave Mayfield, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) assistant professor, Dr. Derek Loftis. Throughout the year, trained tidal flood mappers use the free Sea Level Rise mobile application (iOS / Android) developed by Wetlands Watch and Open Health Innovations (formerly Concursive) to walk the high water lines in public spaces near them to digitally trace GPS contours of the maximum extent of tidal flood waters. These data are shared publicly after the end of the mapping event and used as a public annual tidal calibration for the forecast predictions generated from VIMS' Tidewatch Map. Annually, a live tidal calibration of the forecasts driven from the Center for Coastal Resources Management's SCHISM hydrodynamic model (developed by Dr. Joseph Zhang) is conducted by the trained participatory scientists engaged with Catch the King, and analyzed by Dr. Loftis at VIMS.