On May 7, 2012, NCCOS’s Ms. Carol Auer received a NOAA Distinguished Career Award for her long-term commitment to advancing the Nation’s preparedness for the ecosystem impacts of sea level rise. Ms. Auer’s dedicated career in the National Ocean Service spanned thirty-five years analyzing tides and water levels for the Nation and pioneering studies on the [...]
For decades, those leading efforts to keep southeast Louisiana from being swallowed by the Gulf of Mexico have supported “Putting the river back into the marsh.” The thinking is that the river should be allowed to build new land, just as it had done for millennia before flooding was controlled. But what if pollutants in the [...]
NCCOS-supported University of Central Florida (UCF) graduate student, Matthew Bilskie, won the Engineering, Computer Science, Modeling and Simulation category at the 2013 University of Central Florida Graduate Research Forum in April. Matt is currently working on the NCCOS Ecological Effects of Sea level Rise project in the northern Gulf of Mexico. His award-winning poster described his large-scale, high [...]
The U.S. benefits from a wealth of resources and activities that depend on healthy coastal habitats. However, these habitats are being degraded by extensive hardening of shorelines due to climate-driven sea level rise, increasing shoreline development, land use changes in coastal watersheds, pollution, and invasions of non-native species. In the Mid-Atlantic region alone, coastal development [...]
The threat of sea level rise and storminess poses many management challenges in North Carolina due to low elevation, extensive barrier islands and vulnerability to coastal storms. The long-term North Carolina Sea Level Rise Project, part of the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science’s Ecological Effects of Sea Level Rise (EESLR) program, has developed modeling and [...]
Project-of-the-Year Awards Showcase Program Successes Congratulations to the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) and Environmental Security Technology Certification Program(ESTCP) Projects of the Year, recognized for research and technology developments with significant benefits to the Department of Defense (DoD). These outstanding efforts are helping DoD achieve its mission while improving its environmental performance. Resource [...]
The importance of the Gulf of Mexico to the US economy is significant. The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science has invested over $66M in public funds for research into harmful algal blooms, nutrient over-enrichment contributions to hypoxia, ecological effects of sea level rise (EESLR), and coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico since 1990. [...]
Management agencies are struggling to balance the pressures of coastal development with the conservation and protection of the coastal environment. Representatives of several management groups convened on February 29 to review progress on a NCCOS project studying the ecosystem effects of shoreline hardening, and offer suggestions on linking research results to regional management and policy. This marked the second [...]