Data and Reports Explorer

This document presents the results of an assessment of ecological condition and potential stressor impacts in coastal-ocean waters of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS), based on sampling conducted in June 2008. The project was a collaborative effort by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic ...

Policy makers, natural resource managers, regulators, and the public often call on scientists to estimate the potential ecological changes caused by both natural and human-induced stresses, and to determine how those changes will impact people and the environment. To develop accurate forecasts of ecological changes we need to: 1) increase ...

The major focus of this handbook is on introducing and illustrating concepts of environmental valuation, among them Travel Cost models and Contingent Valuation. These concepts, combined with advances in natural sciences that allow us to better understand how changes in the natural environment influence human behavior, aim to address some ...

This study focuses on the ecosystem of coastal habitats (e.g., seagrass beds, marshes, and coastal forests), which operate as natural infrastructure, and can benefit coastal communities, other types of human development, and economic activity by reducing the impacts of coastal hazards. This study used the “damages avoided” method, in which ...

Mesophotic reef corals remain largely unexplored in terms of the genetic adaptations and physiological mechanisms to acquire, allocate, and use energy for survival and reproduction. In the Hawaiian Archipelago, the Leptoseris species complex form the most spatially extensive mesophotic coral ecosystem known and provide habitat for a unique community. To ...

Brown tides of the pelagophytes Aureococcus anophagefferens Hargraves et Sieburth and Aureoumbra lagunensis DeYoe et Stockwell have formed ecosystem disruptive algal blooms in shallow estuaries of the United States and South Africa for more than two decades. These algae achieve maximum growth rates at low light and nutrient levels and ...

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction; Basic Definitions and Concepts; Measuring Ecosystem Metabolism; Regulating Factors and Spatial/Temporal Patterns; Ecosystem Metabolism Case Studies; Cross?Ecosystem Comparisons; Metabolic Responses to Climate Change and Variability; Conclusions; Acknowledgments; References; Citing Literature ...

Many ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) measures and restoration projects have been implemented to address the stressors that have negatively affected the United States (U.S.) Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Ecosystem simulation models are useful tools for tackling EBFM and restoration questions. Here, we review the current status of ecosystem modeling efforts ...

This report details the results of a survey effort conducted by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science in coastal Georgia which included the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. The survey instrument was designed in collaboration with management staff to analyze the ...

Declines in dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations in aquatic environments can lead to conditions of hypoxia (DO ? 2 mg/L), which can directly and indirectly affect aquatic organisms. Direct effects include changes in growth and mortality; indirect effects include changes in distribution, movement, and interactions with other species. For mobile species, ...

Given projected changes in river flow to coastal regions worldwide due to climate change and increasing human freshwater demands, it is necessary to determine the role hydrology plays in regulating the biogeochemistry of estuaries. A climatic gradient exists along the Texas coast where freshwater inflow balance ranges from hydrologically positive ...

The northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is an ecologically and economically productive system that supports some of the largest volume and most valuable fisheries in the United States. The benefit of these fisheries to society and to the surrounding Gulf communities has varied historically, commensurate with the fish population sizes ...

Fish mortality and hypoxic events occur in many coastal and inland systems and may result from natural or anthropogenically mediated processes. The effects of consequent changes in water biogeochemistry have been investigated for communities of benthic invertebrates and pelagic metazoans. The responses of micro-plankton assemblages, however, have remained largely unstudied ...

The development of molecular probe technologies over the last several decades has enabled more rapid and specific identification and enumeration of phytoplankton species compared to traditional technologies, such as light microscopy. Direct comparisons of these methods with respect to physiological status, however, are sparse. Here we directly compare quantitative real-time ...

Hypoxia-inducible factor-? (HIF-?) and cytochrome P450 1A (CYP1A) are biomarkers of environmental exposure to hypoxia and organic xenobiotic chemicals that act through the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, respectively. Many aquatic environments heavily contaminated with organic chemicals, such as harbors, are also hypoxic. Recently, we and other scientists reported HIF-? genes are ...

The effects of three nitrogen (N) and two phosphorus (P) inorganic and organic forms on the growth, toxin content and composition, toxin production, and chemical composition of Alexandrium catenella and Alexandrium tamarense isolated from coastal waters of Hong Kong were determined. The toxin production rate and cellular toxin content for ...

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 characteristics at three geospatial scales: (1) the shoreline scale characterized ...

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 with differing local watershed land use. During July–October, concentrations of ...

A large hypoxic zone forms every summer on the Texas-Louisiana Shelf in the northern Gulf of Mexico due to nutrient and freshwater inputs from the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River System. Efforts are underway to reduce the extent of hypoxic conditions through reductions in river nutrient inputs, but the response of hypoxia to ...

The National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment (NEEA) is a tool for evaluating both current eutrophic condition and the effectiveness of management actions aimed at reducing eutrophic condition. Eutrophication is caused by excess nutrients and is expressed by symptoms such as increased chlorophyll a and macroalgae, and decreased dissolved oxygen. Widespread coastal ...