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System-wide Monitoring Program (SWMP)
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History of SWMP
The Establishment of a Coordinated National Monitoring Program
The System-wide Monitoring Program became fully operational in 1995, but the conception and design long preceded its implementation. In fact, environmental monitoring has been part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System from the program’s early history.
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| Pictured (from left) are the first four estuarine reserve research coordinators -- Drs. David Klarer, of the Old Woman Creek Reserve, in Ohio; Douglas Bulthuis, of the Padilla Bay Reserve, in Washington; Steve Ross, of the North Carolina Reserve; and Steve Rumrill, of the South Slough Reserve, in Oregon. |
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The reserve system was created by the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (as amended), and the first reserve was designated in 1974, at South Slough, Oregon. In 1979, the Old Woman Creek Reserve, in Ohio, hired the first research coordinator, David Klarer, Ph.D. Dr. Klarer immediately advocated the value of long-term, baseline monitoring and the need to hire a research coordinator at each reserve.
System expansion over the next decade was hindered by a lack of funding and resources so that by 1990 only four reserves had research coordinators. These pioneers moved the program forward and began to formulate a strategy to provide modest funding for reserves to begin monitoring. Shortly after, the national research program started to mature and grow more rapidly.
Within a couple of years, the reserve system had a dozen research coordinators, and an integrated national monitoring program was discussed. Issues of site-based verses system-wide plans were debated, as were site independence, regional needs, standardizations and monitoring priorities.
Establishing a coordinated national monitoring program gained momentum in 1993. Research coordinators Lee Edmiston, of the Apalachicola Reserve, Florida, and Steve Ross, Ph.D., of the North Carolina Reserve, were using automated data loggers to sample water quality. They demonstrated that such data were a logical starting point for a long term, system-wide monitoring program. These researchers also illustrated that valuable science could result from intensively collected data, and these data could be applied to effective coastal management.
This and other discussions lead to a workshop dedicated to the design of a national monitoring program. The workshop was held in February 1994, at the North Inlet-Winyah Bay Reserve, in South Carolina, and focused on the types of monitoring that reserves should pursue. More than 50 people attended from many agencies, and by the end of the workshop the reserves had formulated the framework for a long-term monitoring program, initially focused on abiotic (water quality) characteristics. The agreed upon goal for the reserve’s monitoring was established:
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Identify and track short-term variability and long-term changes in the integrity (including biodiversity) of representative estuarine ecosystems and coastal watersheds, for the purpose of contributing to effective national, regional and site-specific coastal zone management. |
The primary elements of this goal still guide today’s System-wide Monitoring Program (the acronym SWMP is pronounced swamp). This meeting was also pivotal in enhancing the way in which the reserve research community conducts business, leading to more coordination and collaboration among reserves. Since 1994, the research coordinators have been meeting twice a year, with SWMP remaining a dominant topic. Researchers gather as part of the reserve system’s Annual Meeting each fall, and they meet independently during the winter/early spring.
The research coordinators met as an independent group for the first time in April of 1995, at the Apalachicola Reserve, in Florida. The discussions focused on procuring equipment for SWMP water quality monitoring, coordinating logistics, establishing protocols and forming a data management committee to oversee the program’s data.
Reserves were already collecting data in 1995. By 1996, every reserve in the system deployed two automated water quality instruments (YSI 6000 data loggers). With water quality as a fundamental building block of SWMP, a more comprehensive monitoring plan was emerging, which included biological monitoring and habitat change elements. A final working SWMP plan was completed in 2001 with the understanding that SWMP is an evolving program.
Build-out of the monitoring program focused on increasing the number of data loggers at each reserve from the initial two to four stations, adding one weather station per reserve and adding basic nutrient monitoring at the four stations. The reserve system is currently developing and testing a near real time data delivery system that includes real time data quality control. The program has the future potential to automate many tasks now handled by reserve personnel. The system is also working to design standardized biological monitoring components for SWMP.
Today, there are about 100 reserve data collection stations across the country, sampling water quality indicators every 30 minutes, gathering weather data every 15 minutes, and sampling nutrients on a monthly basis. Several reserves use existing telemetry systems to have real time data at their sites or to send to the Internet. This long-term data collection effort has already facilitated a better, even a new, understanding of how basic environmental components of estuarine habitats fluctuate. In the face of ever increasing pressure on coastal regions such a long term, wide area, consistent monitoring program should prove to be a core element for managing estuaries.
Source: Ross, S.W. (2002). A History of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System-wide Monitoring Program. North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve.
Relevant References 
Last Updated on: Tuesday, September 22, 2009
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