Scientists from the Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment and the Office of Response and Restoration outlined a joint strategy to complete an ecological assessment of Vieques, Puerto Rico to support local resource management. The focus of this strategy was on benthic habitat mapping and characterization, fish and invertebrate community structure, an assessment of chemical and nutrient contamination in water, sediments and coral tissues, and novel techniques for characterizing military ordnance abundance, distribution, and composition. Vieques Island was used for nearly 60 years as a military training ground.
The Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA) published “An Ecological Characterization of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Region,” a scientific report that will support future monitoring and scientific studies, the development of educational material, and spatially explicit management decisions. The report provides data, models, maps and analyses on the distribution of marine flora, fauna, contaminants, and physical oceanography in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and in the broader Gulf of Maine region. This study is the result of a three-year collaboration with the National Marine Sanctuary Program to increase scientific knowledge and understanding of marine ecosystems in the Gulf of Maine. CCMA researchers used data from previous scientific studies, in addition to conducting new surveys, giving them a wider range of data for analysis than most traditional biogeography studies yield.
Digital maps and an atlas of the seafloor and coral reef habitats of the eight main Hawaiian Islands were recently completed by scientists from the Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment. These products will serve as a key piece to support local monitoring strategies across the islands and ultimately assess the effectiveness of marine protected areas in Hawaii. The maps and geospatial data were developed in cooperation with NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program and several partners in Hawaii. The study reveals that the percentage of live coral cover is greatest on the island of Hawaii at 57 percent and lowest surrounding Niihau and Kaula at only 4 percent. This effort supports the charge to NOAA by the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force to map all coral reef ecosystems of the U.S. and Pacific Freely Associated States.
Digital maps of Palau’s seafloor and coral reef habitats recently completed by the Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment researchers will serve as a key piece in establishing a biological monitoring program in Palau. This product will support Palau in meeting the goals of the Micronesian Challenge. In addition, the data and maps will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of local marine conservation areas and will identify new areas for protection. The maps and geospatial data were developed in cooperation with NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program and the Republic of Palau, and are the result of the first comprehensive assessment of the extent and types of Palau’s coral reefs. The study reveals that live coral covers approximately 35 percent of Palau’s shallow-water sea floor, a high percentage relative to other areas that NOAA has mapped. This effort supports the charge to NOAA by the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force to map all coral reef ecosystems of the U.S. and Pacific Freely Associated States.
Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment scientists, working on board the NOAA ship Nancy Foster with a number of partners, completed a third season of scientific research to characterize the seafloor in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) and Puerto Rico, at Buck Island Reef National Monument and offshore of La Parguera. The group used multi-beam and video data to characterize a wide diversity of habitat types. The scientists determined that the biota below 200 meters, which, until this year, had never been visually characterized, included: Lophelia coral, black coral sea whips, feather stars, sea pens, sea anemones, starfish, brittlestars, urchins, sponges, isopods, sea cucumbers, lobsters, shrimps, crabs, conch, orange roughys, roundnose grenadiers, tripod fish and several types of snappers. The data collected during this mission will help NOAA meet its commitment to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force to map moderate depth coral reef ecosystems, and will enable NOAA to update the nautical charts for the U.S. Virgin Islands. CCMA scientists joined with colleagues from the Office of Coast Survey, National Geodetic Survey, Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, NOAA Marine and Aircraft Operations, the National Park Service (NPS), the USVI and Puerto Rican governments, the private sector and others to complete this fieldwork.
A team of scientists from the Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office, and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science released the most comprehensive assessment of estuarine eutrophication to date, “Effects of Nutrient Enrichment in the Nation’s Estuaries: A Decade of Change, National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment Update,” which clearly indicates linkages between upstream activities and coastal ecosystem health. The report shows that the majority of U.S. estuaries assessed have moderate to high levels of nutrient related impairments, are highly influenced by human-related activities (i.e. agricultural activities, sewage effluent, urban runoff, atmospheric deposition), and most are expected to worsen in the future. The report also offers recommendations to reduce future problems. The report was released at one of the, if not the only, first national press conferences held by three federal agency undersecretaries and was featured as the top story on the NOAA home page.
Since 2001, the Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment has been conducting biogeographic assessments for the sanctuaries within the National Marine Sanctuary Program. The assessment typically consists of a comprehensive data synthesis, to gather relevant spatial data (abiotic and biotic). One of the main components of each assessment has been an oceanographic characterization, where physical and biological baselines are developed through multiple long-term datasets. CCMA is also working with both passive and active satellite-derived, direct observational, and long-term in situ hydrographic data summaries, to provide long-term information about the distribution and variability of oceanic surface parameters, critical for understanding National Sanctuaries in a broader ecological context. In FY07, CCMA categorically and regionally synthesized nearly 15 long-term climatologies for baseline assessment. The ability to provide ecologically relevant baselines helps to explain abundance, distribution, and trends of natural resources within study regions as well as describes linkages between habitats and how they influence ecosystem function. Included in this suite are monthly and seasonal climatologies for SST, Chlorophyll a, sea surface heights, geostrophic currents, wind derivatives, ocean fronts, precipitation, and ship-board hydrographic parameters including salinity, temperature, density, and dissolved oxygen.
The Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment lead fourteen field based research and monitoring missions as well as completing its annual field collections of coastal contaminant data. All field missions were completed with no reported injuries.
CCMA conducted five field missions to the US Virgin Islands for continued reef monitoring and fish tracking. In St. John, CCMA continues an acoustic tracking study of reef fish to elucidate habitat utilization patterns and residence times inside and outside the national park/monument boundaries. In 2007, the receiver array was extended to incorporate much of the south shore of St. John and will address broader-scale movement among management units and examine the potential benefits of the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument to provide adult “spillover” into Virgin Islands National Park and adjacent harvested areas. The results from this work will aid in defining fine and moderate spatial scales of reef fish habitat affinities and in designing and evaluating marine protected areas.
CCMA conducted four field missions to Vieques Island, Puerto Rico for assessments of contaminants, nutrients, and reef resources to be used for the comprehensive characterization conducted jointly by CCMA and OR&R. The mission to Vieques was to characterize fish and benthic communities, and marine debris on coral reef and hardbottom around Vieques, to characterize chemical contaminants in coral tissue and nearshore sediments, and to quantify the spatiotemporal variability in surface water nutrient concentrations and other indices of eutrophication.
CCMA conducted two major research cruises aboard the NOAA Ship NANCY FOSTER to the Puerto Rico and the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. The Puerto Rico mission collected deeper water benthic habitat mapping and mapped key areas identified by the Caribbean Fisheries Management Council. The Flower Garden Banks NMS mission collected additional data characterizing shallow-water benthic fish communities in support the sanctuary management plan revision process.
CCMA conducted a field mission in collaboration with Korean scientists, U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assess endocrine disruption in fish in the Potomac River and several other rivers in the Chesapeake watershed.
CCMA conducted two National Status and Trends field missions: one Mussel Watch mission by CCMA staff occurred to the Great Lakes and one bioeffects assessment of Kachemak Bay, Alaska. In FY07, CCMA also continued its annual series of coordinated field missions to determine the distribution, trends, and biological effects of chemical contaminants in U.S. coastal, Great Lakes, and ocean waters. Sample collections were made in the following states: Alaska, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia. In 2007, contaminant data was gathered from sediments (completed every 10 years) and bivalves, and represents the twenty-second year of continuous operations for NOAA’s Mussel Watch contaminant monitoring program.
CCMA Completes more than 1500 Safe Dives
CCMA research divers (total of 15 divers), conducted nine dive missions and completed approximately 1605 person-dives (802.5 hr.) without any dive accidents during FY07. For each dive location, CCMA works closely with federal, state, and academic partners to develop and implement Dive Accident Management Plans (DAMPS). These DAMPs are discussed prior to beginning dive activities and would be followed if a situation occurs. Before each mission, local recompression chambers and the NOAA Dive Center are made aware of our activities, planned dives, and actively diving staff members.
