The overall health of the Puget Sound estuary has steadily decreased with the increase in population and development of the Puget Sound Basin. Impairment of nearshore processes and habitat in the Sound, extending along over 2,000 miles of shoreline, is believed to be a critical factor in the declining health of the Puget Sound ecosystem. However, the complex role of geological, biological, and hydrological habitat-forming processes in maintaining ecosystem health is poorly understood.
In response to past and ongoing pressures on the nearshore of Puget Sound, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has joined state natural resource agencies, other Federal agencies, tribes, the commercial sector, NGOs, universities and numerous local governments to form the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration (PSNER) partnership. The PSNER partnership is working to restore and preserve nearshore habitat to help rehabilitate the health of the Puget Sound ecosystem and prevent additional damage in the future as human population in the basin continues to increase. To enable the selection of optimum management options, PSNER partners need the ability to predict and evaluate outcomes of possible restoration and preservation options prior to their implementation. In addition, once options have been implemented, outcomes need to be monitored to verify that the projects have their intended impacts and can be adjusted as needed. This adaptive management approach to ecosystem rehabilitation requires that the ecological function of the nearshore habitat of Puget Sound be better understood.
The long-term objective of the Coastal Habitats in Puget Sound Project is to develop scientific information and tools to support natural resource managers in the adaptive management of nearshore habitats of Puget Sound. The information and tools will explain observed ecosystem conditions by relating those conditions to natural and human factors, by defining the causes of spatial and temporal variations, and by providing the basis for predicting the effects of proposed nearshore rehabilitation and preservation.
One of the most imposing barriers to decision making for improved natural resource protection and management is our lack of understanding how natural processes in Puget Sound work. USGS is coordinating closely with the PSNER Nearshore Science Team to identify major data and information gaps, and to develop an integrated science plan to address those needs. A multi-year, multi-disciplinary plan to provide scientific information on habitats, fish and wildlife populations, and nearshore physical and biological processes is being developed by the USGS and its partners. The first phase of the plan includes starting to fill important data gaps in nearshore physiography and initiating several pilot studies in selected sites.
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Grossman, E.E., Hood, W.G., Beamer, E.M., and Kayen, R.E., 2006, Characterizing natural vs. human-related change in Puget Sound deltaic habitats: 2005 Puget Sound Georgia Basin Research Conference, Seattle, WA (Mar 29-31, 2005)
Grossman, E.E., Logan, J., Storlazzi, C.S., Paytan, A., and Street, J., 2006, Mapping Groundwater Discharge and Nutrient Flux across the Fringing Reefs of South Molokai and West Hawaii, Main Hawaiian Islands, Eos Trans: AGU, 87(36), Ocean Sci. Meet. Suppl., Abstract OS46N-13
Grossman, E.E., Rosenbauer, R., Takesue, R.K., Wyllie-Echeverria, S., Beamer, E.M., and Hood W.R., 2006, Proximal and distal sedimentation impacts to nearshore habitats in the Skagit Delta and San Juan Islands: American Society for Limnology and Oceanography Summer Meeting, Victoria, British Columbia June 4-9, 2006. p. A46
Hill, P.S., George, D.A., and Grossman, E.E., 2006, A Global Perspective on Defining and Controlling the Mudline, Eos Trans: AGU, 87(36), Ocean Sci. Meet. Suppl., Abstract OS46N-13
McGann, M., Grossman, E.E., and Takesue, R.K., 2005, Is Trochammina hadai Uchio a native or introduced benthic foraminifer in Padilla Bay, Washington, USA: North American Paleontological Conference, Halifax, Canada (June 19-24, 2005)
Street, J.H., Grossman, E.E., and Paytan, A., 2006, Submarine Groundwater Discharge and Nutrient Subsidies to the Leeward Shores of Maui, Moloka'i and Hawai'i Estimated Using Radium Isotopes, Eos Trans: AGU, 87(36), Ocean Sci. Meet. Suppl., Abstract OS46N-13
Takesue, R.K., Grossman, E.E., Wyllie-Echeverria, S., and Elliott, J.K., 2006, High Cadmium may contribute to eelgrass (Zostera marina) habitat loss in Westcott Bay, San Juan Island: American Society for Limnology and Oceanography Summer Meeting, Victoria, British Columbia June 4-9, 2006. p. A118
Takesue, R.K., Rosenbauer, R.J., Grossman, E.E., and Wyllie-Echeverria, S., 2005, Sedimentation and contaminant loading: impacts on eelgrass (Zostera marina) bed health in northern Puget Sound: 2005 Puget Sound Georgia Basin Research Conference, Seattle, WA (Mar 29-31, 2005)
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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
