Rusty Feagin

About

Dr. Rusty Feagin is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, and the Department of Ocean Engineering at Texas A&M University. His research centers on how living materials moderate and respond to erosion, with a focus on coastal ecology, geomorphology, and engineering. His lab investigates the interactions between biological and physical processes in sand dunes, salt marshes, and beaches, translating scientific findings into restoration and engineering projects aimed at the sustainable management of coastlines. Dr. Feagin has authored over 100 publications, including articles in prominent journals such as Nature, Science, and PNAS. His work has garnered public media attention through NPR and the New York Times. He has received notable awards, including the Robert Dean Coastal Academic Award from the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association, and the highest environmental honor in Texas. His contributions extend to policy and academia, having served on the US President’s US National Greenhouse Gas Inventory and held visiting positions at esteemed institutions such as the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and others. His research significantly advances understanding of coastal erosion processes and the role of vegetation in coastal protection.

Research topics

• Environmental science
• Biology
• Ecology
• Geology
• Oceanography
• Geography
• Environmental resource management
• Meteorology

Selected publications

• A general pattern of trade-offs between ecosystem resistance and resilience to tropical cyclones

  Science Advances · 2022 · 64 citations

  = 26 storms occurring between 1985 and 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere to predict how coastal ecosystems will respond to future disturbance regimes. Data were grouped by ecosystems (fresh water, salt water, terrestrial, and wetland) and response categories (biogeochemistry, hydrography, mobile biota, sedentary fauna, and vascular plants). We observed a repeated pattern of trade-offs between resistance and resilience across analyses. These patterns are likely the outcomes of evolutionary adaptati…

  DOI

• A Research Framework to Integrate Cross-Ecosystem Responses to Tropical Cyclones

  BioScience · 2020 · 58 citations

  Abstract Tropical cyclones play an increasingly important role in shaping ecosystems. Understanding and generalizing their responses is challenging because of meteorological variability among storms and its interaction with ecosystems. We present a research framework designed to compare tropical cyclone effects within and across ecosystems that: a) uses a disaggregating approach that measures the responses of individual ecosystem components, b) links the response of ecosystem components at fine…

  DOI

• Tidal Wetland Gross Primary Production Across the Continental United States, 2000–2019

  Global Biogeochemical Cycles · 2020 · 54 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract We mapped tidal wetland gross primary production (GPP) with unprecedented detail for multiple wetland types across the continental United States (CONUS) at 16‐day intervals for the years 2000–2019. To accomplish this task, we developed the spatially explicit Blue Carbon (BC) model, which combined tidal wetland cover and field‐based eddy covariance tower data into a single Bayesian framework, and used a super computer network and remote sensing imagery (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectr…

  DOI

• Does vegetation accelerate coastal dune erosion during extreme events?

  Science Advances · 2023-06-14 · 48 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  A broadly accepted paradigm is that vegetation reduces coastal dune erosion. However, we show that during an extreme storm event, vegetation surprisingly accelerates erosion. In 104-m-long beach-dune profile experiments conducted within a flume, we discovered that while vegetation initially creates a physical barrier to wave energy, it also (i) decreases wave run-up, which creates discontinuities in erosion and accretion patterns across the dune slope, (ii) increases water penetration into the s…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Beach and Dune Subsurface Hydrodynamics and Their Influence on the Formation of Dune Scarps

  Journal of Geophysical Research Earth Surface · 2023-12-01 · 20 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Erosive beach scarps influence beach vulnerability, yet their formation remains challenging to predict. In this study, a 1:2.5 scale laboratory experiment was used to study the subsurface hydrodynamics of a beach dune during an erosive event. Pressure and moisture sensors buried within the dune were used both to monitor the water table and to examine vertical pressure gradients in the upper 0.3 m of sand as the slope of the upper beach developed into a scarp. Concurrently, a line‐scan l…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Physics of Dune Erosion during Extreme Wave and Storm-Surge Events

  NSF · $226k · 2018–2022

• Collaborative Research: Eco-geomorphic coupling: Vegetation transition and sedimentary responses to faulting

  NSF · $113k · 2009–2013

Frequent coauthors

• Thomas P. Huff

  Texas A&M University

  52 shared

• Kevin M. Yeager

  23 shared

• James M. Kaihatu

  Texas A&M University

  18 shared

• Kuang‐An Chang

  Texas A&M University

  17 shared

• Jin Young Kim

  Korea Basic Science Institute

  17 shared

• M. Luisa Martínez

  16 shared

• Audra Hinson

  Agricultural Research Service

  15 shared

• Shih‐Heng Sun

  Texas A&M University

  14 shared

Education

• B.A., Environmental Studies

  University of California, Santa Cruz

• Ph.D., Rangeland Ecology and Management

  Texas A&M University

Awards & honors

• Robert Dean Coastal Academic Award by the American Shore and…
• Highest environmental honor in the State of Texas
• Texas State Senate proclamation in his honor

Similar researchers at Texas A&M University

• Masami Fujiwarah-47
• William E. Granth-44
• Perry Barbozah-32