Detecting changes in seafloor elevation in sandy coastal environments using low-cost opensource tooling

Knowledge of sediment erosion and deposition can be useful for a variety of engineering, marine science, and environmental applications, but collecting detailed time-series measurements of the sediment-water interface can be challenging, particularly in coastal marine environments. We developed economical and open-source sediment level loggers to record sediment-water interface time-series data with accuracy up to 1 cm. The logger is composed of a programmable Circuit-Python (or Arduino) microcontroller and "breakout boards" that attach to a specially designed printed circuit board (PCB) and an array of evenly spaced photoresistors enclosed in a robust waterproof housing. These instruments were paired with temperature sensors in a study off the coast of Charleston, SC in the South Atlantic Bight where heat was used as a tracer to detect the flow of porewater in the permeable coastal sediments. This approach requires accurate knowledge of the depth of temperature sensors relative to the sediment-water interface. In this application, improved knowledge of the elevation of the sediment-water interface elevation data from the sediment level loggers reduced average root mean squared errors in modeling submarine groundwater discharge by as much as 25 %. The sediment level loggers can be easily installed, withstand long deployment times, and provide long-term recording abilities suitable for a range of environments.