Massachusetts Geological Survey

05/01/2026

MGS/UMass graduate student Melissa Rymaszewski was recently awarded the nation's most prestigious science fellowship for graduate studies - the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. With other MGS staff, Melissa is taking a detailed look at the mechanisms that can make salt marsh restoration effective.

Pictured - a filled former salt marsh ditch, likely dug in the 1930s, that makes the marsh vulnerable to sea level rise. Melissa will be answering questions: "How does this restoration practice impact marsh hydrology?" "Are there carbon benefits to these restoration practices, and can we quantify them?" (Location, Crane Estate, Trustees, Ipswich, MA).

College of Natural Sciences at UMass Amherst
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
The Trustees

04/29/2026

Simple metrics can sometimes be the most useful. Exciting work by colleagues in UMass EGCS.

It turns out that the simple depth of a boot print can say a lot about the state of the habitat, as sedimentologist Ash Oh shared this past February at this year’s Ocean Sciences Meeting, held in Glasgow in the UK. Read more about the research Ash presented at https://blogs.egu.eu/geolog/2026/04/13/footprints-reveal-climates-mark-on-mudflats/

03/26/2026

Mass Geo Survey folks were at the Northeast Geological Society of America conference in Hartford, CT this week sharing results on everything from bedrock mapping with airborne geophysics to the efficacy of novel salt marsh remediation methods.

Photo 1: USGS scientist Greg Walsh, Connecticut State Geologist Meghan Seremet, and Massachusetts State Geologist Brian Yellen presenting a collaborative poster showing results from a multistate airborne magnetic survey (bright colors). Data release soon!

Photo 2: research led by UMass graduate student Melissa Rymaszewski assessing how to best reverse historic harm to salt marshes from 1930s era ditching. Goal - make marshes resilient to sea level rise so that they don't drown.

UMass Amherst; UMass Amherst Dept. of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences; The Trustees; College of Natural Sciences at UMass Amherst; Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP)

02/03/2026

What happens in the dark?

MGS postdoc William Speiser makes a salt marsh respiration measurement with an opaque cover to quantify how much carbon is lost from salt marshes due to being metabolized (eaten!) by microorganisms. Without the cover, the same method measures net CO2 uptake - the sum of respiration and photosynthesis.

Graduate student Melissa Rymaszewski makes a precise GPS measurement near a groundwater well.

11/17/2025

Salt marshes store a lot of carbon. How much more could they store through restoration?

In collaboration with colleagues at University of UMass Amherst, The Trustees, and Boston University we are asessing the effectiveness of remediating potentially thousands of miles of salt marsh ditches. See the video below for more details.

College of Natural Sciences at UMass Amherst
UMass Amherst Dept. of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences

09/18/2025

State Geologist Brian Yellen teamed up with Connecticut State Geologist Meghan Seremet and USGS research geophysicist Anji Shah this week. They were tracking down rock units in Massachusetts and Connecticut that are likely to host the mineral pyrrhotite, which if incorporated into concrete as aggregate can cause structures to fail. Tens of thousands of house foundations in Massachusetts and Connecticut are affected.

01/13/2025

Brian Yellen, newly appointed Massachusetts state geologist and former research professor in the UMass Amherst Dept. of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences, was recently invited as a scientific expert to a meeting with the White House's Council on Environmental Quality and Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The meeting focused on coastal policy as it relates to "blue carbon," which refers to organic carbon stored in coastal ecosystems. Blue carbon ecosystems, such as salt marshes, store roughly 20 times more carbon per unit-area than upland forests. Massachusetts is home to more than half of the salt marshes in New England.

“I had the opportunity to meet with key figures in the President's office who make important decisions about ocean conservation,” said Yellen. “I made the case that satellite remote sensing can improve our ability to quantify coastal carbon, but that we need funding to scale up proven data products.”

Learn more: https://umass.science/3YRTCyu

Massachusetts Geological Survey

01/13/2025

This fall, the Northeast has been grappling with an alarming surge in droughts and wildfires.

These have been fueled in part by record-breaking heat, low rainfall, and climate-driven shifts in weather patterns.

Media outlets and others have been turning to members of the College of Natural Sciences at UMass Amherst—including David Boutt and Michael Rawlins of the UMass Amherst Dept. of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences and Anita Milman of the Department of Environmental Conservation at UMass Amherst—to better understand the causes for these natural phenomena and possible solutions.

Learn more: https://umass.science/4i92AQm

01/13/2025

01/13/2025

Brian Yellen, Massachusetts state geologist and former research professor in the UMass Amherst Dept. of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences, was recently asked by The Guardian to weigh in on the issue of erosion.

The article in question details a growing trend of buyers snapping up waterfront homes at reduced prices, fully aware of the looming risks posed by rising sea levels and rapidly eroding shorelines driven by the climate crisis.

Yellen considered bluffs found in the eastern US and Canada: “While less susceptible to coastal flooding and inundation, as bluffs tend to be high up, these coastlines are particularly susceptible to shoreline retreat.”

Learn more: https://umass.science/3Dma56D