Faculty

		Ken Sargent
		Suresh Muthukrishnan
		Steppen Murphy
		Brannon Andersen
		Jack Garihan
		Bill Ranson
		Lee Mitchell
		Weston Dripps

		Nina Anthony


	Mr. Steppen Murphy Adjunct Instructor Plyler Hall 22 Phone: 864-294-2505 e-mail: firstname.lastname@furman.edu Education Ph.D. (Candidate) Department of Geology. University of South Carolina. M.S., Department of Geology. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. B.S., Department of Zoology. University of Wisconsin at Madison.
	Research Interests Coastal Processes, Sediment Transport, Wetland Sedimentation, Riparian Forest Buffers. The focus of my research is on wetland sedimentary processes at North Inlet-Winyah Bay Estuarine Research Reserve, which is a relatively pristine, back-barrier salt marsh estuary located near Georgetown, South Carolina. Salt marshes along the eastern coast of the United States are considered among the most productive ecosystems in the world, but many are in danger of being lost because they cannot keep pace with recent rates of sea level rise. A net loss of salt marsh area in many parts of the world has already been observed. Coastal salt marsh environments represent a large proportion of area, equaling about 30,000 km, just along the eastern seaboard, and they are considered important because many of these wetland systems sustain great ecological diversity and provide critical habitats for wildlife. Coastal wetland systems also act as regional sinks for contaminants, which attach onto fine-grained sediments, and are deposited into coastal wetlands. As development and anthropogenic activities increase in coastal areas, many coastal areas will experience an increased threat to coastal health. Thus a baseline understanding of the natural sediment cycling (i.e., erosion, transport and deposition) mechanisms in coastal marshes is imperative to maintaining the health and prosperity of these systems and in predicting their sedimentary response to future man-made influences. Courses Process Geomorphology Introductory Oceanography GIS Project - Arcview download - Getting to know ArcView - Exercise Data Current Projects 1. Meteorological and Tidal Controls on Suspended Sediment Concentrations and Fluxes in a Tidal Salt Marsh 2. The Impact of Dredging on Tidal Salt Marsh Sediment Dynamics Professional Memberships American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) American Geophysical Union (AGU) Geological Society of America (GSA) Grants & Awards Environmental Scholars Fellowship South Carolina Wildlife Federation Fellowship John Hodge Fellowship AAPG Research Grant Outstanding Teacher Award Stan Harris Award Slocum-Lunz Grant Abstracts Murphy, S., Staub, J., R., Utgaard, J.E., and Gastaldo, R. A. Distribution and ecology of Holocene foraminifera within the Lassa distributary of the Rajang River delta, Sarawak, East Malaysia. Geological Society of America, 28th annual meeting, Abstracts with Programs - Geological Society of America, 28 (7), p. 485, 1996. Meeting: Geological Society of America, 28th annual meeting, Denver, CO, United States, Oct. 28-31, 1996. Murphy, S. and Voulgaris, G. Long-Term Sediment Flux in a Tidal Salt Marsh: Forcing Functions and Spatial Variability. AGU Fall Meeting 2000 (San Francisco, CA), EOS Transactions, American Geophysical Union, Dec. 14-19, 2000. Murphy, S. and Voulgaris, G. Long-Term Sediment Dynamics in a Tidal Salt Marsh, North Inlet, South Carolina: Meteorological and Tidal Controls on Suspended Sediment Concentrations. AGU Spring Meeting 2001 (Boston, A), EOS Transactions, American Geophysical Union, May 28 - June 1, 2001.

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