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Estuaries change constantly. Change is necessary for healthy estuaries. But, human effects on estuaries can have negative and long lasting effects. How do you know if it has rained more than usual? What should the temperature be in the water to ensure that fish can spawn?
Data exploration encourages keen insight into these questions that will allow students to move from a general disassociated concepts like, ‘oceans are important to human civilization’ to an empowered understanding that ‘the amount of rainfall we get, and therefore whether my house floods or not, depends on the circulation patterns in the ocean’.
What type of data can I use to teach about estuaries?
Educators can teach students about estuaries using near real-time, real-time, and archived data collected through its System-wide Monitoring Program (SWMP; pronounced “swamp”) SWMP tracks short-term variability and long-term changes in estuarine waters to understand how human activities and natural events can change ecosystems. It provides valuable long-term data on water quality and weather at frequent time intervals.
Established in 1995, SWMP is a monitoring program that focuses on three different ecosystem characteristics:
- Abiotic Parameters, including: atmospheric conditions and water quality (nutrients, salinity, contaminants, etc.)
- Biological Monitoring, including: biodiversity, habitat and population characteristics
- Watershed and Land Use Classifications, including: changes in human uses and land cover types.
The NERRS currently measures physical and chemical water quality indicators, nutrients and the impacts of weather on estuaries. Expanded biological monitoring and tracking of changes in land use is now begining at many of the reserves.
What educational resources use SWMP data?
The National Estuarine Research Reserve System has created "Estuaries 101", a curriculum that include student activities, professional development and training using SWMP data. In addition, we recommend that you use the Water Quality Monitoring Module from the Data in the Classroom Project. This module makes use of a special online tool which provides the interface to the NERRS/SWMP data offered through the CDMO.
We will soon provide you with a user-friendly interface that will allow you to query the NERRS System-Wide Monitoring data, as well as other datasets. This interface is currently being designed with students and educators in mind. We expect to launch this interface by the end of the year. Subscribe to receive the NERRS Education Bulletin, if you would like us to notify you when it becomes available.
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Last Updated on: Tuesday, November 13, 2012
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