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Information About the Project
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Information About the Project
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Water quality and anthropogenic inputs that affect it are the primary issues facing most coastal and estuarine areas of the United States. Many of the acute ãpresentingä problems in coastal areas have their origins in water quality degradation: nutrient input (both point and non-point) to estuaries can result in overenrichment, in turn causing excessive algal growth, loss of seagrasses, anoxia, fish kills, and overall estuarine habitat degradation. The primary cause of water quality degradation in estuarine and coastal waters is anthropogenic loading from coastal watersheds (Officer et al. 1984, NOAA 1991, Valiela et al. 1992, DíAvanzo and Kremer 1994, Short et al. 1996). In general, temperate estuaries are primarily nitrogen limited, and the major component of point and non-point source nutrient loading that causes eutrophication is nitrogen (Ryther and Dunstan 1970, Nixon and Pilson 1983). For example, in the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, the poorly flushed nature of this estuary and excessive housing development has led to nitrogen overenrichment, which in turn has resulted in algal proliferation (Valiela et al. 1992) and almost complete loss of eelgrass (Short and Burdick 1996). The Great Bay Estuary, in contrast, sustains a viable eelgrass population throughout, with major changes in distribution resulting from disease (Short et al. 1988, Short and Burdick, 1995), but the disappearance of eelgrass from areas in the vicinity of the many tributary inputs to the Estuary has been linked to anthropogenic nutrient loading and poor water quality (Short 1992). Throughout the United States, much of the coastal zone is experiencing high developmental pressure. The need for both predictive capabilities to assess water quality impacts and for transferable management tools to address the impacts on critical habitats is clear.
A great deal of information has been collected on water quality conditions but the direct application of such information to focused management action needs facilitation. This research combines such monitoring information with evidence of habitat change and hydrodynamic input to yield an integrative tool that can facilitate scientifically-based management decisions. An eelgrass spatial model incorporating up-to-date hydrodynamic information has been formulated for the Great Bay Estuarine Research Reserve and can be used to create an interactive research tool for examining issues of water quality in relation to habitat change.
Our research team includes expertise in data and resource management from OCRM/NOAA (Dr. Michael Crosby), spatial computer modeling from the Institute of Ecological Economics at University of Maryland (Drs.Robert Costanza and Roelof Boumans), hydrodynamic modeling from UNH Jerry Chase Ocean Engineering Building and Ocean Processes Analysis Laboratory (Dr. Barbaros Celikkol), and eelgrass ecosystem modeling from UNH Jackson Estuarine Laboratory (Dr. Frederick Short). The team represents a collaborative, coordinated interaction of hydrodynamic modeling expertise and biological/environmental knowledge to address a complex management-related issue. Together, we bring the understanding of engineering and physical science into the biological realm in a way that addresses real-world problems of human impacts on the coastal zone.