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.