Contact Tim.Battista@noaa.gov for digital PDF copy. The purpose of this Atlas is to provide detailed maps depicting the GIS benthic habitat data produced, and outline the benthic habitat classification scheme and protocols used to map American Samoa, Guam and the ...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Ocean Service (NOS) initiated a coral reef research program in 1999 to map, assess, inventory, and monitor U.S. coral reef ecosystems (Monaco et al. 2001). These activities were implemented in response to ...

This report describes the development and assessment of shallow-water (0<35 m) benthic habitat maps for Northeast Puerto Rico and Culebra Island. The objective of this effort, conducted by NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) in partnership with the ...

This report documents the entire process of benthic habitat mapping in St. John. Chapter 1 provides a description of the benthic habitat classification scheme used to categorize the different habitats existing in the nearshore environment. Chapter 2 describes the steps ...

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 ...

The continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico receives high dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus loads from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers. The nutrient load results in high primary production in the river plumes and contributes to the development ...

Simulation models coupling physics to biological processes in the ocean are central to many current programs. Ocean physical models have approached a high level of sophistication; the physical relationships are canonical, and modern computational technology for fluid mechanics has advanced ...

Coupled biological/physical models of marine systems serve many purposes including the synthesis of information, hypothesis generation, and as a tool for numerical experimentation. However, marine system models are increasingly used for prediction to support high-stakes decision-making. In such applications it ...

A numerical hydrodynamic simulation of the Texas-Louisiana continental shelf circulation is compared with hydrographic and moored observations of temperature, salinity, and current velocity. The spatial and temporal structure of the model error suggests that the model is able to reproduce ...