South
Atlantic Ecosystems
ISSUE
The South Atlantic Bight
(SAB), the portion of the Southeastern Atlantic seaboard between Florida
and North Carolina, is experiencing unprecedented population growth.
Rapid growth in the SAB is causing changes in coastal land-use practices
and will place enormous pressure on the coastal watersheds and adjacent
marine ecosystems. The Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research/Coastal
Ocean Program (CSCOR/COP) supports two research programs centered in
coastal South Carolina that address this problem. These research programs
are the Urbanization and Southeastern
Estuarine Systems (USES) program and the Land
Use - Coastal Ecosystem Study (LU-CES).
APPROACH
The goal of the CSCOR/COP
sponsored research in the SAB is to understand how changes in land-use
and management patterns, population growth, habitat quality, and other
environmental factors impact coastal ocean resources. These factors
are being examined to quantify linkages and provide information to facilitate
decision-making in order to minimize or avoid potential impacts to the
resources and their habitats.
The primary objectives of
the ongoing USES study are: 1) to characterize and delineate the impact
of multiple stresses resulting from urbanization on high-salinity estuaries;
and 2) to develop models which will provide a scientifically valid basis
for making land-use management decisions in the coastal zone. Emphasis
has been placed on watershed dynamics, including an examination of land-use
patterns and the impacts associated with watershed loading. By comparing
the short-term trends and long-term variability in system responses
at the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in
South Carolina with those of an adjacent developed estuary, Murrells
Inlet, a science-based assessment of the impacts of development can
be made and recommendations for sustainable coastal development put
forth. New models and techniques have been and are being developed for
applied coastal zone management that incorporate land-use patterns and
practices, integrated toxicological and risk assessment modeling, and
Geographic Information System analysis approaches.
The overall objectives of
the ongoing LU-CES program are: 1) to establish a functional understanding
of the environmental and socio-economic trends that characterize the
southeastern U.S. coastal region; 2) to fill critical information gaps
that currently limit the identification of links between population
and development trends and their effects on the region's marine ecosystems;
and 3) to qualitatively predict impacts, build conceptual models of
linkages between habitats and ecosystems, and define the spatial scale
at which management will have the highest probability of minimizing
or avoiding impacts. LU-CES research focuses on the processes that govern
hydrodynamic, geochemical and biotic variability in salt march ecosystems,
as well as on the policies that relate this variability to human activities
and the potential for resource management. Research within the LU-CES
program has begun, with the research teams organized within the following
functional areas: physical attributes and hydrology, geochemistry and
nutrients, toxic contaminants and ecological effects, land use, and
database management/GIS/modeling.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Within the past year new
techniques have been used within the USES program to differentiate between
human and animal pollution sources of fecal coliform bacteria. USES
studies have also indicated that anthropogenic practices have altered
nutrient loading patterns and introduced contaminants to coastal waters
that have resulted in deleterious effects on phytoplankton growth and
photosynthetic efficiency. The Agricultural Non-point Source model was
used to simulate dissolved inorganic nitrogen and inorganic phosphorus
export from a forested and a suburban watershed to develop the ability
to simulate anthropogenic effects on nutrient fluxes in an area experiencing
rapid population and tourism growth. A tight integration of simulation
models with existing and ongoing development of GIS databases of the
study areas will facilitate the ability to evaluate watershed processes
and anthropogenic influences at multiple scales and development scenarios.
Research within the LU-CES program has recently been initiated.
MANAGEMENT AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
CSCOR/COP supported efforts
are striving towards developing a mechanistic understanding of the processes
by which ecosystem change (and often degradation) occurs as a function
of development. This research will provide decision-making tools that
can be tailored to assist Federal, state and local coastal resource
managers and policy makers. South Atlantic Bight environmental research
will help managers discriminate between the resource changes related
to anthropogenic stresses, (e.g., over fishing, pollution, habitat destruction,
human population shifts), and those changes related to the natural variability
of populations, whether inter-annually regulated or induced by climate
variation. The methods developed and information provided are essential
for management decisions relating to fostering sustainable use of coastal
resources and developing predictive models for coastal resource management.
Related Websites
For
more information contact:
John Wickham
CSCOR/Coastal
Ocean Program
phone:
301-713-3338
e-mail:
coastalocean@noaa.gov
Last Updated:
May 15, 2003
