The U.S. benefits from a wealth of resources and activities that depend on healthy coastal habitats. However, these habitats are being degraded by extensive hardening of shorelines due to climate-driven sea level rise, increasing shoreline development, land use changes in coastal watersheds, pollution, and invasions of non-native species. In the Mid-Atlantic region alone, coastal development [...]
The threat of sea level rise and storminess poses many management challenges in North Carolina due to low elevation, extensive barrier islands and vulnerability to coastal storms. The long-term North Carolina Sea Level Rise Project, part of the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science’s Ecological Effects of Sea Level Rise (EESLR) program, has developed modeling and [...]
Project-of-the-Year Awards Showcase Program Successes Congratulations to the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) and Environmental Security Technology Certification Program(ESTCP) Projects of the Year, recognized for research and technology developments with significant benefits to the Department of Defense (DoD). These outstanding efforts are helping DoD achieve its mission while improving its environmental performance. Resource [...]
The importance of the Gulf of Mexico to the US economy is significant. The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science has invested over $66M in public funds for research into harmful algal blooms, nutrient over-enrichment contributions to hypoxia, ecological effects of sea level rise (EESLR), and coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico since 1990. [...]
Management agencies are struggling to balance the pressures of coastal development with the conservation and protection of the coastal environment. Representatives of several management groups convened on February 29 to review progress on a NCCOS project studying the ecosystem effects of shoreline hardening, and offer suggestions on linking research results to regional management and policy. This marked the second [...]
An NCCOS-funded researcher updated his innovative coastal marsh model and provided an interactive web based application. The web accessible zero-dimensional Marsh Equilibrium Model (MEM III) provides users a hands-on tool to simulate how a tidal marsh community interacts with the physical environment to maintain its functionality under various sea level rise scenarios. Dr. James Morris [...]
Humans have dramatically increased the nitrogen load to coastal systems leading to eutrophication. Putting a monetary value on an ecosystem’s ability to remove nitrogen is effective for communicating the significance of often overlooked shallow water systems that are in decline due to sea level rise, urbanization and bulkhead construction. Using the common regionally derived dollar [...]
Sea Level Rise (SLR) is potentially detrimental to coastal habitats and human settlements along the coast, particularly on the U.S. Gulf Coast where coastal habitats support the majority of its commercial industry. Local resource managers must adjust their plans to protect and preserve the resources under their care. NCCOS is funding a team led by [...]