News Archive: January - March 2007

New Newsletter for Coastal Management Program Launched

The Coastal Programs Division has launched a new Newsletter—National Coastal Management Program News—to enhance the exchange of information between coastal managers. The quarterly newsletter highlights the accomplishments of state and territory coastal management programs and innovative on-going projects. Every quarter, the Newsletter will also highlight a different part of NOAA and the technical resources available to state and territory coastal management programs. If you have a coastal management highlight to share, please submit your story by April 1st, 2007 to Allison Castellan.

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Applications Sought for NERRS Social Science Fellowships

NOAA will award up to five fellowships for masters and doctoral students to conduct social science research within the National Estuarine Research Reserve System beginning July 1, 2007. Deadline for applications through Grants.gov has been extended to Feb. 28.

The fellowship will be for $30,000 and requires a 30 percent match, for a total project cost of $42,858. The program is sponsored by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, Estuarine Reserves Division, in collaboration with NOAA’s Coastal Services Center and Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Climate Program Office. The social science fellowships will be in addition to the existing Graduate Research Fellowship program.

The fellowships will be available to students whose research focuses on the social, cultural, economic, or policy aspects related to one of the following topics: community resilience, ecological restoration; ecosystem-based management; landscape or seascape change; climate variability and change. At least one fellowship will be awarded to study climate variability and change.

The amount of the fellowship is $30,000 and requires a 30% match. For more information on application guidelines and participating reserves, please visit Grants.gov.

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Congressional Staff Briefing on Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs

Dr. C. Mark Eakin and Dr. Dwight Gledhill of NOAA/NESDIS Coral Reef Watch (CRW) were requested to brief the Senate Commerce Committee Democratic staff and Senator Inoyue’s staff on the Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reefs. CRW is an important component of NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program matrix. NOAA Coral Reef Watch is advancing the development of tools that couple satellite monitoring to in situ observations to track changes in coral reef ecosystems in response to ocean acidification.

The briefing focused on: how increasing atmospheric CO2 is changing ocean chemistry; the impacts of ocean acidification on marine calcifying organisms such as corals; ongoing and future research and monitoring (Hawai`i-specific and general); and steps that can be taken to reduce vulnerability of corals to stressors that can be controlled by managers at the local level.

Important points were discussed regarding the extremely rapid rate at which oceanic pCO2 is increasing and that we have now entered a period during which we expect rapid changes in the ability of corals and other organisms to build their skeletons. Eleven staffers from the Senate Commerce Committee and the offices of Sen. Inouye, Sen. Cantwell, Sen. Cantwell, Sen. Bill Nelson, Sen. Kerry, and Sen. Lautenberg attended the briefing.

Senate staff raised several issues of interest including the potentials to curtail ocean acidification by reducing CO2 emissions, economic impacts, and potential for local responses to ocean acidification. Further requests are expected in response to the briefing.

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NOAA's MPA Center Holds Public Meeting on Draft MPA Framework

Following NOAA and the Department of the Interior’s release of the "Draft Framework for Developing the National System of Marine Protected Areas" for public comment, the National MPA Center is offering several public forums to provide an overview of the document and answer questions from the public. The first of these meetings was held in the Washington, DC metro-area on Friday, December 8. Twenty-one participants from non-government organizations and government agencies participated in the meeting. The MPA Center will also hold two nationwide web-cast meetings on January 11, and January 18. Meeting summaries and associated documents will be made available on the MPA Center website.

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Applications Sought for NERRS Social Science Fellowships

NOAA will award up to five fellowships for masters and doctoral students to conduct social science research within the National Estuarine Research Reserve System beginning July 1, 2007. Deadline for applications through Grants.gov has been extended to Feb. 28.

The fellowship will be for $30,000 and requires a 30 percent match, for a total project cost of $42,858. The program is sponsored by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, Estuarine Reserves Division, in collaboration with NOAA’s Coastal Services Center and Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Climate Program Office. The social science fellowships will be in addition to the existing Graduate Research Fellowship program.

The fellowships will be available to students whose research focuses on the social, cultural, economic, or policy aspects related to one of the following topics: community resilience, ecological restoration; ecosystem-based management; landscape or seascape change; climate variability and change. At least one fellowship will be awarded to study climate variability and change.

The amount of the fellowship is $30,000 and requires a 30% match. For more information on application guidelines and participating reserves, please visit Grants.gov.

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Prediction of Coral Spawning in the Caribbean to Help Managers Reduce Human Impacts to Coral Recruitment

A comprehensive review of coral reproduction literature was undertaken by the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS)-sponsored National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI) to identify predicted coral spawning and larval duration times in the Caribbean.  In addition, the review will help identify gaps in scientific knowledge in an effort to provide information to managers to help them reduce human impacts during the critical coral spawning window. 

Modification of the type or timing of activities that introduce nutrients, toxic chemicals, and suspended particles may lead to enhanced fertilization and coral recruitment success.  For many of the main reef-building species, information on coral spawning times is known and can be predicted.  However, in most locations this information has not been widely available or previously considered during planning and implementation of human activities. 

Compilation of this information by species and by region will give managers the information they need to help protect corals during a sensitive phase of their life history.  This project directly supports the Coral Spawning Resolution passed by the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force.  The NCRI funding is administered by the NCCOS’ Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, and is a core component of NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program. 

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Caribbean Reef Fish Studies Demonstrate Importance of Ecological Criteria in Design of Marine Protected Areas

National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) scientists and partners have completed a study, described in an article in the February issue of Fisheries and Management Ecology, of reef fish populations and habitats of the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument (VICRNM).  The study demonstrates the importance of ecological design criteria for establishing protected areas. 

The administrative process used to delineate the boundaries of the VICNRNM, which was established offshore of St. John by a Presidential Proclamation in 2001, primarily used legal parameters, and did not include a robust ecological characterization of the area.  Although the VICRNM prohibits almost all extractive uses, the scientists found that areas outside the monument had significantly more hard corals, greater habitat complexity, and greater richness, abundance and biomass of reef fishes than areas within the monument.  Because of reduced habitat complexity within the VICRNM, the enhancement of the marine ecosystem through increases in economically important reef fishes may not be fully realized, or they may take longer to detect. 

This study was based on surveys NCCOS and its partners conducted from 2002-2004 of habitats and fishes both within and outside the VICRNM and received funding from NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program. 

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Wells Reserve Expands Role as Southern Maine Mapping Center

The Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve has been selected by the Maine Coast Protection Initiative as the Mapping and Technology Service Center for southern Maine.  The reserve’s new role as a GIS Service Center expands its ability to provide maps, support, and training to those conserving land from Kittery to Cape Elizabeth.

The reserve recently offered its first workshop in its new role: GIS Mapping for Land Trusts.  GIS specialists Susan Bickford and Matthew McBride showed members of the southern Maine land conservation community how to use free software to make their own maps from data bundled and shared by the Wells Reserve.  The workshop attracted seven participants from six conservation organizations in the service region.

ArcReader and Google Earth are mapping programs that can be freely downloaded. With these programs and the data bundle provided at Wells Reserve workshops, land trusts can now produce their own custom maps with powerful information and extraordinary detail.

The workshop was the first in a series of tutorials being offered by the Wells Reserve. GIS Mapping for Land Trusts will be repeated in January and February. Other upcoming workshops will concentrate on using global positioning systems (GPS), aerial photographs, and user-defined data layers.

The Wells Reserve GIS Service Center is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Coast Protection Initiative, a coalition of more than 70 coastal organizations founded by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Maine State Planning Office, Land Trust Alliance, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center.

For nearly a decade, the Wells Reserve geographic information systems (GIS) center has been collecting and sharing digital parcel maps, aerial photographs, satellite images, conserved lands maps, rare wildlife and plant occurrence data, and other data that make maps useful.

The Reserve has produced hundreds of maps at the request of scientists, citizens, resource managers, students, and other coastal decision-makers throughout southern Maine.

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NOAA Releases Coral Reef Ecosystem Research Plan

On March 1st, in conjunction with the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meeting in Washington, D.C., the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) released a new document titled 'NOAA's Coral Reef Ecosystem Research Plan for Fiscal Years 2007 to 2011' (Research Plan). 

The Research Plan provides coastal and ocean managers, scientists, and policy makers with the most up-to-date scientific information to address the complex nature of the threats facing coral reef ecosystems, and identifies priority research needed to advance management action.  The Research Plan is NOAA’s first agency-wide coral reef ecosystem research plan. 

Covering all coral reef ecosystems under the jurisdiction of the U.S. and Pacific Freely Associated States, the plan provides a national perspective on the research needed to address the range of stresses affecting the health of coral reef ecosystems, summarizes the management and other issues that will drive research at the regional level, and focuses on the use of research to guide effective implementation of ecosystem-based management strategies. 

For more information or to download a copy, visit CoRIS or contact Kimberly Puglise. 

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Release of New Report on Coral Reef MPAs       

The NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and Coastal Programs Division (CPD) of the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management announce the publication of the "Report on the Status of Marine Protected Areas in Coral Reef Ecosystems of the United States Volume 1: Marine Protected Areas Managed by U.S. States, Territories, and Commonwealths."

The National Action Strategy of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force (2002) called for the Report that was presented to the interagency body of twelve federal agencies and seven states and territories at its 17th meeting on March 1-2 in Washington, D.C.  The Report was funded by the CRCP, coordinated by CPD and is the first inventory and assessment of MPAs managed by State and Territory governments in the seven U.S. States and Territories with coral reef ecosystems: American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Report uses data collected in the National Marine Managed Inventory as well as the expertise of NOAA and state and territory co-authors to explore the management status of 207 MPAs located across the seven jurisdictions. The Report also identifies major challenges to effective MPA management and offers a series of recommendations both at the national and local levels to improve MPA success. 

For more information contact Dana Wusinich-Mendez.

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Stormwater Center Developing Database of Best Management Practices

The University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center is developing a database of innovative stormwater best management practices for public use.  The database is designed to highlight strategies, such as Low Impact Development (LID) designs, implemented throughout the state and New England region. 

Bioretention areas, rain gardens, gravel wetlands, and pervious pavements are some of the innovative stormwater practices the center is targeting.  While a number of such practices are in place, lack of performance data and implementation have limited widespread acceptance of innovative stormwater management.

The database will identify local examples that will be useful for anyone considering using these techniques for future development to protect water resources.

The Stormwater Center is part of the NOAA-UNH Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology.  For more information, contact Dwight Trueblood.

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Volunteers Restore Habitat at Tijuana NERR

More than 100 volunteers from across San Diego County helped to remove invasive species and plant native vegetation in a two-acre area of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve on January 27, in a partnership event with Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) and others. Collectively, the volunteers logged 318 hours of community service while planting more than 600 native species, including several species of succulents and cacti, as well as other scrubland plants, comprising a fast-disappearing plant community called maritime succulent scrub.  Maritime succulent scrub, found in extreme southwestern California and northern Baja California, supports numerous rare plant and animal species.

"I get excited when people show up for an event like this," said Reserve Manager Clay Phillips. "Not only do we make progress in restoring important habitat, but we get to teach more people about this wonderful resource and add to the number of advocates who recognize this estuary as a jewel of the San Diego region."

REI helped recruit many of the volunteers. Other partners included the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - Refuges, California State Parks, and the Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association, the San Diego-based RECON Native Plants Inc., which contributed more than 500 plants to the project, and Chula Vista’s East H Street Starbucks, which donated coffee and snacks to fuel the volunteers.
The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve is managed as a partnership between California State Parks and the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge.

For more information, contact George Cathcart.      

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OCRM Releases New Report on Coral Reef Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

The NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and Coastal Programs Division (CPD) of the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management announce the publication of the “Report on the Status of Marine Protected Areas in Coral Reef Ecosystems of the United States Volume 1: Marine Protected Areas Managed by U.S. States, Territories, and Commonwealths.”  This report was called for in the 2002 National Action Strategy of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force and was presented to that interagency body of 12 federal agencies and seven  states and territories at its 17th meeting on March 1-2, 2007 in Washington, D.C.  The report was funded by the CRCP, coordinated by CPD and is the first inventory and assessment of MPAs managed by State and Territory governments in the seven U.S. States and Territories with coral reef ecosystems: American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  The report utilizes data collected in the National Marine Managed Inventory as well as the expertise of NOAA and state and territory co-authors to explore the management status of 207 MPAs located across the seven jurisdictions.  The report also identifies major challenges to effective MPA management and offers a series of recommendations both at the national and local levels to improve MPA success.  For more information contact Dana Wusinich-Mendez.

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