Giddings lab members shared their work across coasts, across borders, and at home this week!

vboatwrightUncategorized

This week, Giddings lab members went near and far to tell people about our work!

All the places we spoke!


Giddings lab members Niv Anidjar and Victoria Boatwright went off to attend the Coastal & Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) Biennial Meeting in Richmond, Virginia. 

Anidjar presenting her work at CERF. Nov 10, 2025.

 

Anidjar started off the whole conference of talks presenting her work, “Subtidal circulation, salinity, and temperature structure in a seasonally inverse, low-inflow estuary,” at 8am (!) in the Mixing & Transport in estuaries & coastal systems session.

Boatwright presenting at CERF. Nov 10, 2025.

 

 

Boatwright followed after her, presenting at 8:15am, discussing her work, “Storm impacts to estuarine mixing & biogeochemistry in a low-inflow estuary,” in the Freshwater inflow alteration effects session.

 

 

 

 


This year, CERF had over 1,500 participants and there were several exciting workshops and sessions. Richmond showed off its charm with the James River and the downtown area with the State Capitol and several murals. While exploring the trails along the estuary, we discovered some real-time water quality maps about sewer system overflows, which can be viewed at: https://rocketpop.co/4docZF2

QR code to real-time (last 48 hour) water quality map along the James River.

Richmond is home to the River James & many murals around the city!

 

Zhang et al at CICESE’s Student Symposium.


At the same time, Helen Zhang went to Ensenada, MX, to present her work, titled “Coastal trapped waves in the Southern California Bight – where does it come from, where does it go?” as part of CICESE’s III Simposio de Estudiantes de Oceanografía Física on November 10-11.

Finally, Ágata Piffer Braga presented at the ~prestigious~ Physical Oceanography seminar at our own Scripps Institution of Oceanography! Her talk was titled “The Evolution of a River Plume Front.” Now the SIO community knows more about river plumes 🙂

Piffer Braga speaking at the SIO PO seminar. Nov 12, 2025.

 

 

 

 

 

echoboat survey – issues!

Sarah GiddingsUncategorized

We attempted our first full echoboat bathymetry survey 16 Dec 2024, but it was pretty unsuccessful. Unlike during the training, the boat props kept getting floating debris entrained and shutting off. Presumably this was because the survey was at high tide and extra loose marsh plants, seagrass etc. was floating into the channel. We had to rescue the boat and re-set the motor multiple times.

new postdoc position: coastal hydro-morphodynamic interactions!

Sarah GiddingsUncategorized

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), UCSD, is looking for a postdoctoral scholar to work on a project aiming to improve our observations and predictions of nearshore processes including coastal flooding, coastal morphological evolution, and estuary inlet closure. The postdoctoral scholar will be responsible for helping collect and analyze observations as part of a larger group effort. This includes observational planning, instrument programming/deployment/uploads, and general laboratory maintenance. Scientific analyses will include creation of high spatial and temporal resolution topo/bathymetric maps using best available data, overall analysis of hydrodynamic forcing fields during the observational studies, and in-depth analysis on a topic(s) of choice ranging from inlet morphological evolution, theoretical and/or modeling analysis of inlet accretion, wave-current/inlet/morphological feedbacks, estuarine response to inlet changes, coastal flooding, etc. These analyses will be conducted through utilization of state-of-the-art observations, but we also support modeling approaches as well. A strong background in oceanography is required and preference will be given to those with significant expertise in coastal hydrodynamics, nearshore processes, and coastal observations. There will be opportunities for interaction with scientists in other fields related to the project as well as graduate and undergraduate students working in the PI’s labs. Finally, if desired, the postdoctoral researcher will have the ability to participate in stakeholder engagement and outreach. Additional information about this position and how to apply can be found here. Additional information about postdoctoral positions at UCSD, professional development and career training opportunities, and benefits can be found on the UCSD Office of Postdoctoral Scholar Affairs website.

training with our new remote-controlled boat!

Sarah GiddingsUncategorized

We completed training on our new remote-controlled boat, an echoboat 160 from SeaFloor Systems! This tool will be outfitted with a fast sampling CTD connected to an autonomous winch system for rapid vertical profiles of salinity and temperature throughout the water column, an ADCP to measure currents throughout the water column, and an echo sounder to measure the bottom bathymetry. The first tasks we will use the boat for will focus on running it at high tides to capture bottom bathymetry which will be merged with our topo/bathy surveys from aerial UAV flights and truck-based LiDAR missions. It can work well in very shallow water, making it well suited for our small estuary research.

Sarah GiddingsUncategorized

Dr. Giddings did a hands-on demonstration at the Kendall Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve Love Your Wetlands Day to a broad audience. The event included a variety of talks, booths, and opportunities to get out on the water and help clean up the wetlands. There were 1020 attendees and 208 people picked up 89 kg of trash on the guided marsh walks!

new postdoc position: real-time coastal modeling!

Sarah GiddingsUncategorized

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), UCSD, is looking for a postdoctoral scholar to work on a project aiming to improve our understanding and develop predictions of coastal water quality. The postdoctoral scholar will be responsible for building upon an existing realistic regional numerical model to help transition the model into a predictive tool. A strong background in oceanography is required and preference will be given to those with significant expertise in numerical modeling and coastal hydrodynamics. The existing regional numerical model uses the COAWST framework (ROMS + SWAN), thus experience within this framework is desirable. The position will be located at SIO working with Dr. Falk Feddersen, Dr. Sarah Giddings, Dr. Matt Spydell, Dr. Ganesh Gopalakrishanan, and Dr. Bruce Cornuelle. The postdoctoral scholar will help develop the real-time modeling capabilities (reading in real-time forcing fields, automating outputs, etc). The postdoctoral scholar will also examine model performance and potential improvements to model performance using data assimilation. The postdoctoral scholar will have the opportunity to work on scientific analyses of model output on topics ranging from applied (the modeling tool development and applications) to basic (the interaction between outflows and breaking surface gravity waves, internal tides, etc.). Moreover, there will be opportunities for interaction with scientists in other fields related to the project as well as graduate and undergraduate students working in the PI’s labs. This particular position and project is entirely focused on numerical modeling and comparisons to observations, however, there will likely be opportunities to participate in field work. Finally, if desired, the postdoctoral researcher will have the ability to participate in stakeholder engagement and outreach. Additional information about this position and how to apply can be found here. Additional information about postdoctoral positions at UCSD, professional development and career training opportunities, and benefits can be found on the UCSD Office of Postdoctoral Scholar Affairs website.

undergraduate research opportunity in oceanographic particle tracking visualization tool development!!

Sarah GiddingsUncategorized

As part of an NSF CAREER award, the Giddings lab is looking for a few undergraduate researchers to help further develop an existing oceanographic particle tracking visualization tool. Strong coding experience is necessary, particularly with Java as that is the current language for the tool. Much more information about the project goals and opportunity are here. For those interested in applying, please email Dr. Sarah Giddings, and send a brief cover letter, a copy of your CV, and transcript (all in a single pdf), and available times to meet.

PiNC Project Update: First Splash

Alex Simpsonprojects, research

The Plumes in Nearshore Conditions (PiNC) project is underway with our first field deployment. On Thursday and Friday (Dec 8-9, 2022) the field crew at SIO placed five outer-surfzone stations at 8m water depth, and one deeper 30m station offshore of Los Peñasquitos Lagoon. Both the R/V Sally Ann and R/V Bob and Betty Beyster were used – a two ship endeavor! The outer 8m stations stretch 1km of coastline centered at LPL with the anticipation of observing escaped river plumes, with two additional stations spanning 7km southward, which connect LPL to the SIO pier for a larger alongshore study led by SIO PhD student Sierra Byrne. The 8m stations have bottom-mounted frames, largely designed by field crew member Shane Finnerty, that include a combination of ADCPs, CTDs, fluorometers, and miniDOTs for measuring currents, temp/salinity, dye concentration, and oxygen, respectively. These were placed on the seafloor and jetted into place by the field crew divers. The 30m station used a special bottom frame called a Sea Spider; included GoPro photo was taken by field crew member/diver Rob Grenzeback at 30m depth during its deployment. The surface floats of each station additionally have CTDs and fluorometers for observing the buoyant (and during our intensive ops, dye-filled) plume. Several stations additionally have surface miniDOTs, and thermistor chains throughout the water column. The crew reports that it was a great day on the water, with up to 50ft visibility while diving. These stations will be out for 2 months, and additional stations in the surfzone will be added in the coming weeks. To be continued…

Workshop with Headwall Photonics

Alex Simpsonresearch

In early October, lab member Alex Simpson and field crew member Rob Grenzeback hosted a meeting and workshop centered around hyperspectral cameras mounted on drones. Headwall Photonics, the company that produces the camera we are using for upcoming field work, sent several technicians to train us in the usage of their equipment. A hyperspectral camera is different than your average camera (which parses light into 3 spectral wavelengths: Red, Green, and Blue) because is able to parse reflected light from objects into many, many wavelengths (270 to be exact!) which gives ~100x more information about what is being imaged. Our application for this technology is to collect imagery of Rhodamine dye releases at the mouth of Los Peñasquitos Lagoon to track river plume behavior in the surf zone (similar to past study CSIDE). By using the hyperspectral camera, we aim to determine the concentration of dye, and by proxy the concentration of fresh water, using spectral properties of the dye in the imagery. During the workshop, we released a small amount of dye into the ocean near the SIO pier, and had success in flying the drone, collecting imagery of the dye, and some initial post processing of the data! The pictures below show field crew member Shane Finnerty preparing the Rhodamine dye, which is hot pink in color, and the crew gathered on the beach before our drone flights. A sample image of the dye is included, where you can see the hot pink dye at the surface and seaweed underwater, surrounded by the sandy ocean bottom.

     

Fieldwork in the Pajaro Lagoon, Monterey, CA

l6kimUncategorized

At the end of September, lab members Lauren Kim and Alex Simpson assisted in some instrument deployment and data collection at the Pajaro Lagoon in Monterey, CA, with Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) collaborators, Dr. Mara Orescanin and her students, Kierstin Pastrana and John Plant. The team installed a water logger with real-time monitoring in the nearby slough system, and CTD casts and bathymetry surveys were conducted via kayak. To collect the bathymetry, an ADCP was towed behind the kayak and the paddler zig-zagged across the estuary. The CTD casts were collected using a hand-deployed Castaway. During the second day of fieldwork, the team collected drone imagery to observe wave runup at the lagoon mouth and intended to test a LiDAR drone. However, a thick marine layer rolled through the testing site and the LiDAR drone had to remain grounded. Overall the trip was a success, and the data collected will bolster Lauren Kim’s thesis work and provide preliminary data for Dr. Orescanin’s students at NPS.