Staff of the Biogeography Branch have a variety of scientific capabilities and a wealth of experience. The Branch’s expertise is in the synthesis, assessment and modeling of distributions, habitat, movement and life histories of estuarine and marine species; see below.
If you are interested in specific capabilities or partnering with us, please contact chris.caldow@noaa.gov, and visit our Projects and Products for more information on our work.
Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning
- Assessments of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
- Efficacy assessments of MPA designs
- Assessment and comparison of resources within and outside of MPAs
- Evaluation of MPA boundary alternatives
- Applied research to support/inform management
Mapping–Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing
- Spatial/temporal assessment of saltwater species (corals to whales) and their habitats
- Assessment of benthic habitats, through remote-sensing and SCUBA diving
- Spatial modeling, analyses and 3-D visualization
- Technical map production
Marine Biogeography, Integrated Ecosystem Assessments and Research
- Assessment of species habitat, life history attributes, management and protection information
- Developing ecological/community metrics
- Predictive and habitat suitability modeling
- Estuarine and marine ecosystem assessment
- Development of survey protocols, sampling designs and monitoring programs
- SCUBA diving, ship surveys, image analysis
- Watershed modeling and characterization of land-based sources of pollution
Software Tool Development
- Habitat Digitizer Extension (GIS)
- EcoGIS Fishery Mapper: a mapping tool for display and analysis of fishery data (GIS)
- Maptite – an estuarine restoration tool (GIS)
- Sampling Design Analysis Tool (GIS)
- Relational Databases for storing, analyzing and distributing benthic data and imagery
- Web applications for quickly distributing data and images publicly (e.g., Benthic Habitat
Viewer or Coral Reef Ecosystem Monitoring Database)
Collaboration, Communication and Leveraging Resources
- Collaboration with regional partners is an essential part of our assessment process: our work
could not be done without our numerous partners in over 100 study areas in estuarine and
coastal ocean waters of the Atlantic, Pacific & Gulf of Mexico.
- Communication through publications, workshops, presentations at conferences, website and
other digital media – DVDs, videos, database and image servers
- Cooperative agreements with local partners provides substantial involvement of NOAA with
partner scientists, while leveraging local, regional and national resources.
- Technical support for resource managers using specialized data, databases & analytical tools