This document provides an assessment of the status of ecological condition in coastal-ocean waters along the U.S. continental shelf, from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, WA to the Mexican border, based on sampling conducted in June 2003. The project ...

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 ...

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 ...

The National Status and Trends Program is comprised of three nationwide programs: Benthic Surveillance, Mussel Watch, and Bioeffects. These programs are in place to observe estuarine and coastal waters nationwide to describe the current status and detect changes in the ...

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 ...

This is the West Coast regional component of NOAA?s Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Project, a national database of ecologically and economically important fishes and invertebrates in the Nation's estuaries. The distribution and relative abundance are depicted in a consistent ...

These unprojected (geographic coordinates) 3-Zone Average Annual Salinity Digital Geographies are based on analysis of long-term salinity data for 147 estuaries of the contiguous United States. Each estuary is subdivided into three zones between the head(s) of tide, and the ...

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 ...

Over the past four decades, the state of Hawaii has developed a system of eleven Marine Life Conservation Districts (MLCDs) to conserve and replenish marine resources around the state. Initially established to provide opportunities for public interaction with the marine ...

Reef-building corals inhabiting the mesophotic zone (30-150 m) not only survive but thrive in light-limiting environments. Similar to shallow corals, mesophotic corals also exhibit coral fluorescence. Because fluorescent proteins (FPs) absorb high-energy light and emit lower-energy light, FPs could play ...