BECOMING A NERRS SENTINEL SITE

Transcription

1 BECOMING A NERRS SENTINEL SITE NIKKI DIX, PH.D. RESEARCH DIRECTOR GUANA TOLOMATO MATANZAS NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE

2 WHAT IS A SENTINEL SITE? to assess impacts of changing Goal: sea levels on coastal wetlands Local Part of a larger network # NERR Priority

3 **This is not the same as the NERRS Sentinel Site Program

4 gathering people from many backgrounds and disciplines NOAA and other federal experts, state and local government decision makers, university researchers, and other people who have a stake in a particular region. This 'cooperative' atmosphere will lead to novel solutions to address real-world local problems, such as how to protect a development from rising sea levels or how to best protect a sensitive shoreline habitat.

5 The goal of the NERRS program is to make every NERR a Sentinel Site Current NERR Sentinel Site 9

6 NERR FRAMING QUESTIONS What are the current distributions of vegetation communities with respect to elevation and tidal 1. range, and how do they vary from year to year? What is the response of the vegetation community 2. to long term changes in local water levels? 3. What is the response of marsh sediment elevation to changes in local water levels?

7 BENEFITS OF A NERRS SENTINEL SITE Improved understanding of local coastal wetlands structure & function

8 SERVICES THAT BENEFIT HUMANS Habitat Water Quality Carbon Storage Storm Surge Protection

9 BENEFITS OF A SENTINEL SITE Early detection of sea level rise impacts Informing habitat restoration Sediment dynamics Variability in marsh elevation Which marshes are most sensitive to water level changes? Where are restoration projects needed? Where will restoration be effective?

10 SS Implementation Plan Marsh and Mangrove Monitoring Sediment Elevation Monitoring Water Quality and Weather Monitoring (near transects) Water Level Measurements Vertical Reference System

11 WHAT WE HAVE

12 1 DEP Water Level/ Weather 1 2 SWMP Water Quality Sites Emergent Vegetation 1 3 SWMP Weather Site SWMP Water Quality Sites 4 Emergent Vegetation

13 St. Augustine One meter square plots

14 St. Augustine Sediment Elevation Table

15 Deep Rod Surface Elevation Tables (SETs) From: Elevations Overview for NERRS

16 WHAT WE NEED

17 Vertical Control and Water Level

18 Weather Station

19 Weather Station New station at the Environmental Education Center? Convert the DEP station?

20 Vegetation Transects

21 STEPS 1. Stakeholder Involvement Sentinel Site Workgroup? Workshop How will data be used? Installing and maintaining infrastructure Research priorities 2. Implementation Plan Approval 3. Funding 4. Implementation Stakeholders Raise awareness of program and data availability Involved in planning Involved in implementation Use data or interpreted results Disseminate data and results

22 QUESTIONS? (904)

23 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN Identify audiences Allocate resources Establish programmatic capacity Plans for data synthesis, interpretation, and dissemination Vertical Control Plan

24 POTENTIAL FUNDING PARTNERS USGS LCC Our Global Estuary Smithsonian TNC NOAA CSC, or NOAA Coastal Office SE region Natl. Assoc. Marine Labs Universities IOOS, GSAA