Christopher Hein
Professor
Email:
[[v|hein]]
Phone:
(804) 684-7533
Office:
Andrews Hall 230
Section:
Coastal & Ocean Processes
Links:
{{http://www.vims.edu/research/units/labgroups/coastal_geology/index.php, Coastal Geology}}, {{https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YoPflQUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao, Google Scholar}}
Education
B.S., Science of Earth Systems, Cornell University, 2003
Ph.D., Coastal Geology, Boston University, 2012; Advisor: Dr. Duncan FitzGerald, Department of Earth & Environment
Postdoc: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Supervisor: Dr. Valier Galy, Department of Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry
About
Coastal populations, infrastructure, and ecological communities are currently under threat from atmospheric warming, accelerated sea-level rise, changes in the frequency and intensity of coastal storms, and variability in sediment-supply rates. The response of sedimentary coastal systems to these changes will be driven by the interactions of climate change and sedimentary processes. My research address the complexities of Holocene coastal evolution and the importance of our ability to predict interrelated changes in each of these drivers in forecasting the impact of future climate change on coastal evolution.
Specifically, my work focuses on three themes: (1) links between terrestrial climate change and fluvial sediment export, and their role in the global carbon cycle; (2) the coastal morphologic and sedimentologic imprints of changes in the type and delivery rates of fluvial and shallow-shelf sediments to the coastal zone in response to past climate and sea-level changes; and (3) the coupled responses of barrier islands and backbarrier environments to changes in sea level and sediment supply. I address these themes over timescales ranging from decades to millennia, focusing on the middle to late Holocene. For this, I employ a wide range of laboratory and field tools and techniques, including ground-penetrating radar, sediment sampling and coring, and compound-specific stable- and radioisotope organic-carbon chemistry. My primary research focuses on the mainland and barrier islands of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, but we have active projects studying dune processes in the North Carolina Outer Banks; barrier-island processes in the Gulf of Maine; coastal processes and paleoclimate as recorded in the beach- and foredune-ridge systems of southern Brazil; and marshes processes along much of the US East Coast.