In many coastal regions throughout the world, there is increasing pressure to harden shorelines to protect human infrastructures against sea level rise, storm surge, and erosion. This study examines waterbird community integrity in relation to shoreline hardening and land use ...

Nutrient inputs have degraded estuaries worldwide. We investigated the sources and effects of nutrient inputs by comparing water quality at shallow (< 2m deep) nearshore (within 200 m) locations in a total of 49 Chesapeake subestuaries and Mid-Atlantic coastal bays ...

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) provides many important ecosystem functions, but SAV has been significantly reduced in many estuaries. We used spatial–statistical models to identify estuarine shoreline characteristics that explain variations in SAV abundance among subestuaries of the Chesapeake Bay and ...

Coastlines worldwide are being altered due to shoreline hardening and stabilization and while highly altered systems are subject to change, variability exists in how shoreline hardening affects benthic communities depending on the landscape features of the system and regional production ...

Egg deposition by the intertidal spawning fish Atlantic silverside (Menidia menidia) was compared among six shoreline types (Spartina alterniflora, Phragmites australis, sandy beach, riprap, riprap-sill, and bulkhead) and various substrates. In spring 2010, M. menidia egg density was measured daily ...

Stable isotope analysis has become a common tool for mapping trophic relationships, describing foodweb changes, and assessing ecosystem health. Clear interpretation of stable isotopes is facilitated by understanding how environmental factors can affect isotopic values; in estuarine systems, these factors ...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Ocean Service (NOS) Strategic Plans present a vision for protecting, restoring, and managing our nation's aquatic resources through proactive ecosystem approaches to management. These approaches require integrated, multidisciplinary models and coordination ...

Ocean acidification (OA) has the potential to restructure ecosystems due to variation in species sensitivity to the projected changes in ocean carbon chemistry. Ecological models can be forced with scenarios of OA to help scientists, managers, and other stakeholders understand ...

Studies of estuarine eutrophication have tended to focus on systems with continually flowing rivers, while little is known about estuaries from semi-arid/arid regions. Here we report results from an assessment of water quality conditions in Baffin Bay, Texas, a shallow ...

Species are experiencing a suite of novel stressors from anthropogenic activities that have impacts at multiple scales. Vulnerability assessment is one tool to evaluate the likely impacts that these stressors pose to species so that high-vulnerability cases can be identified ...