This document contains the results and analysis from the fourth national coastal assessment, published in 2012 ...

NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) works in partnership with other federal agencies and coastal states to conduct assessments of ecological condition and potential stressor impacts throughout our Nation’s estuaries, coastal-ocean waters, and NOAA protected areas; carry out ...

The physical processes that drive the circulation and the thermal regime in the bay largely control the duration and persistence of hypoxic conditions in Green Bay. A review of previous studies, existing field data, our own measurements, hydrodynamic modeling, and ...

Knowledge of aquatic invasive species (AIS) dispersal is important to inform surveillance and management efforts to slow the spread of established invaders. We studied potential dispersal of invasive Eurasian ruffe Gymnocephalus cernua and golden mussel Limnoperna fortunei larvae in Lakes ...

The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (TBNMS) encompasses 4,300 mi² of Lake Huron off the northeastern shore of Michigan. Much of the lakebed in the sanctuary was mapped prior to 1950 and therefore those data suffer from multiple deficiencies by ...

The Wisconsin-Lake Michigan National Marine Sanctuary has been proposed along the western shore of Lake Michigan between the cities of Two-Rivers and Port Washington, Wisconsin. Much of the proposed sanctuary and rest of Lake Michigan were mapped prior to 1950 and therefore ...

We present water column thermal structure for two climatically different years: 2012, which experienced abnormally warm spring and summer air temperatures preceded by a relatively low ice winter and 2013, which experienced cooler than average spring and average summer air ...

We used structured expert judgment and economic analysis to quantify annual impacts on ecosystem services in the Great Lakes, North America of nonindigenous aquatic species introduced by ocean-going ships. For the US waters, median damages aggregated across multiple ecosystem services ...

Effective management of rare species, including endangered native species and recently introduced nonindigenous species, requires the detection of populations at low density. For endangered species, detecting the localized distribution makes it possible to identify and protect critical habitat to enhance ...

Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs) are a growing problem in freshwater systems worldwide. CyanoHABs are well documented in Green Bay, Lake Michigan but little is known about cyanoHAB toxicity. This study characterized the diversity and spatial distribution of toxic or ...