A natural process by which productivity of a water body, as measured by organic matter, increases as a result of increasing nutrient inputs. These inputs are a result of natural processes but in recent decades they have been greatly supplemented by various human related activities. A variety of impacts may result, including excessive algal blooms, nuisance and toxic algal blooms, depleted dissolved oxygen, and loss of submerged aquatic vegetation and benthic fauna. These impacts are interrelated and usually viewed as having a negative effect on water quality, ecosystem health, and human uses. Management concerns should address the human, or cultural, portion of nutrient additions insofar as the additions are detrimental to the environment. COAST’s satellite remote sensing capabilities are being used to develop synoptic assessments of chlorophyll concentration and climate variation throughout the Nation’s estuaries and coastal waters in an attempt to better describe processes affecting eutrophication. Coast is also responsible for updating the “National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment” (NEEA) to highlights the changes in nutrient related water quality impacts, the sources of nutrients that cause impairments, and expected future conditions in our nation’s coastal waters and elsewhere (http://www.eutro.us; http://www.eutro.org). The assessment method is available as a desktop program and can be downloaded at http://www.eutro.org/register
Reports and publications can be accessed at http://www.eutro.org/publications.aspx and http://ian.umces.edu/neea/resources.php as well as at the CCMA publications pageAnimal feeding operations (AFOs) represent a significant source of non-point source pollution for many estuaries in the U.S. AFOs are a source of nutrients, steroids, antibiotics and metals to estuaries such as Chesapeake Bay. In addition to the ecological effects of these components of AFO runoff, these contaminants may also be useful as indicators of AFO pollution. Read More ›
An integrated system-wide approach for monitoring and assessing ecological condition of National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) resources and potential threats from multiple stressors currently does not exist (except for water-quality parameters). This effort is the initiation of a partnership with the NERRS program to develop approaches for characterizing the ecosystem condition and public-health status of NERRS sites and providing a framework for forecasting future condition of these important protected waters. Read More ›
This study is assessing the spatiotemporal variability of nutrients and nutrient related effects in the near coastal environment surrounding Vieques. By leveraging previous and on-going NOAA research in Vieques, including coral richness/diversity, fish and macroinvertebrate community structure, sediment and coral tissue contamination, and coral biomarkers and pathogen studies, this effort will add an additional metric (nutrient/eutrophication) of ecosystem health to this comprehensive ecological assessment of Vieques. Read More ›
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA) has published a report on assessing eutrophication in coastal water bodies, Improving Methods and Indicators for Evaluating Coastal Water Eutrophication: A Pilot Study in the Gulf of Maine. This pilot study of nine coastal bays, harbors, sounds and estuaries in the Gulf of Maine and five in the Mid-Atlantic region examines a number of items related to assessing eutrophication.. Read More ›
Nutrient related water quality problems have recently been identified as one of the greatest challenges to US coastal waterbody health. The purpose of this project is to apply the NEEA eutrophication assessment method with recent quantitative improvements to the National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) data to assess eutrophic conditions within the North Atlantic Region NERRs. Read More ›
The purpose of this project is to update the National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment (NEEA) to highlight changes in nutrient related water quality, sources of nutrients and expected future conditions that have occurred in the decade since the early 1990s (the timeframe represented by the first NEEA). This is the first of what are expected to be periodic updates. An online survey data collection tool has been designed so that experts can enter data and information for nutrient loads and water quality variables that is automatically calculated into an expression value for eutrophication by the online program. Read More ›
The purpose of this work is to develop a type classification of estuaries and coastal waters of the United States that describes susceptibility to development of eutrophication using physical and hydrologic characteristics. The intent is to capturing inter-system differences in a context that is useful for more accurate, quantitative and management-oriented assessment of both perturbations and system responses to nutrient over-enrichment (human-induced eutrophication). The type classification will allow modification of the NEEA method to include type specific-criteria thereby increasing the accuracy of assessments. Read More ›
