As part of an ongoing program of benthic sampling and related assessments of sediment quality at Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary (GRNMS) off the coast of Georgia, a survey of soft-bottom benthic habitats was conducted in spring 2005 to characterize ...

Cyanobacteria blooms caused by species such as Microcystis have become commonplace in many freshwater ecosystems. Although phosphorus (P) typically limits the growth of freshwater phytoplankton populations, little is known regarding the molecular response of Microcystis to variation in P concentrations ...

The NCCOS Regional Ecological Assessments (REA) and NOAA National Benthic Inventory (NBI) include observations of water quality, sediment quality, fish and shellfish tissue chemical contaminants, and benthic infaunal abundance obtained from studies conducted since 1991 by NOAA and partnering institutions ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

We investigate three sources of bias in valuation methods for ecosystem risk: failure to consider substitution possibilities between goods, failure to consider nonseparability of ecosystem services with market goods, and failure to consider substitution possibilities between ecosystems. The first two ...

We tested the accuracy of an invasive aquatic plant risk assessment system in the United States that we modified from a system originally developed by New Zealand’s Biosecurity Program. The US system is comprised of 38 questions that address biological, ...