The project team produces educational outreach materials for audiences throughout Grand Bay. The materials will raise awareness of the positive and negative effects of land-use change for the general public, community organizations, and decisionmakers within the region. The materials will educate audiences about the ways to preserve and protect Grand Bay from waterborne pathogens and excess nutrients. The team will use science-based information to reinforce the importance of reducing stormwater contamination, improving wastewater management, and implementing land-use planning that takes water resources into account. This science transfer project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to promote the use of science. It did not produce any new data.

Through the current project, the Chesapeake Bay-Virginia Reserve is building on the strengths of the previous years of CECB to extend the reach into Middlesex County, while developing an alumni program to support the program in Gloucester and Mathews. All three counties lie within a region experiencing relative rates of sea level rise greater than the global average. This science transfer project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to promote the use of science. It did not produce any new data.

The four national estuarine research reserves in New England will work together to share existing and develop new educational resources for the classroom teachers they work with. New Curriculum: The Waquoit Bay Reserve recently developed a curriculum about blue carbon, "Bringing Wetlands to Market," which will be shared with the three other New England reserves (Wells, Great Bay, and Narragansett Bay). The reserves will use a similar process to develop localized teaching modules about climate change impacts. Teacher Workshops: A three- or four-day intensive teacher workshop will be held at each participating reserve in the summer of 2016. Teachers will test out a suite of new educational resources about climate change and receive guidance on how to develop stewardship projects for their students. Application by Other Reserves: Post-workshop evaluations and meetings will serve as opportunities to discern the successes and challenges associated with the trainings and new curriculum. Revised training and teaching materials will be presented and made available to the entire reserve system. This science transfer project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to promote the use of science. It did not produce any new data.

To restore the ecosystem services lost through coastal habitat degradation, restoration projects have been conducted but most lack monitoring or evaluations. Limited monitoring and evaluation prevents comparisons across designs to determine which are the most functional sustainable, and cost-effective. Additionally, information about the advantages of and how to perform restoration projects is currently limited. Limited comparisons across restoration designs and the sparse information on how to conduct restoration projects significantly hinders the implementation of projects. This project team engaged researchers, environmental managers, stakeholders, and end-users to address some of these issues. The team quantified the functionality, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness of several coastal restoration designs at the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The designs compared plots planted with nursery grown plugs with plots comprised of standing natural marsh both with and without offshore breakwaters. The study found that offshore breakwaters enhanced natural plant growth, but not nursery grown plants. However, it is possible that this effect is time dependent as the positive effect on natural plant growth was seen beginning six years after breakwater installation while the nursery plants had only been planted two and a half years ago. Information gained from this research and the regulatory knowledge of the collaborative team have been combined with pre-existing literature to create user friendly outreach materials and workshop for consultants, landscapers, and marine contractors. This research and outreach will improve the effectiveness and ease of implementation of coastal restoration projects.

This project synthesized Sentinel Site data for four New England National Estuarine Research Reserves (Great Bay, Narragansett, Waquoit Bay, and Wells), which have been individually monitoring salt marsh vegetation and elevation changes since at least 2011. The project team developed statistics-ready data packages linking vegetation change with surface elevation and other data, including output from an inundation tool. This project equipped New England reserves and coastal managers with new information to inform and improve the management, protection, and restoration of salt marshes. It produced an improved Sentinel Site monitoring protocol and established a methodology for analysis of marsh condition that can be used across the reserve system and by coastal managers nationwide. This catalyst project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to advance collaborative science. It did not produce any new data.

This project will provide research staff members from the mid-Atlantic reserves with targeted tools, graphical support, and training to facilitate the use of reserve monitoring data. The project team will focus on deciphering trends in water quality parameters, which are related to management issues such as storm surge mitigation. Through workshops and the development of statistical applications, this project will increase capacity to distill monitoring data into a format that resource managers can use. The project team will share their approach and project outputs with the larger reserve system, and collectively, these efforts will demonstrate the value of the reserve monitoring program. This science transfer project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to promote the use of science. It did not produce any new data.

People receive numerous benefits from nature, such as water purification, coastal protection, and food production. These ecosystem services are an increasingly important consideration for coastal managers as they design management interventions to protect coastal habitat. This includes National Estuarine Research Reserve managers, who are working to better understand ecosystem services across the reserve system. However, without a standardized approach it has been difficult for coastal managers to consistently incorporate ecosystem services into programs or projects. In response to this need, researchers with Duke University’s National Ecosystem Services Partnership developed Ecosystem Services Conceptual Models (ESCMs) for estuarine habitats that diagram the way a management intervention cascades through an ecological system and provides benefits to people. The Duke team built on previous work that created an ecosystem services modeling approach for salt marsh. In partnership with the Rookery Bay and North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserves and their stakeholders, the team led a series of workshops to produce site-specific and generalized Ecosystem Services Conceptual Models for mangrove and oyster habitat restoration in the southeast United States. This catalyst project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to advance collaborative science. It did not produce any new data.

This project created a web-based toolkit, called Resilience Metrics, designed to complement other climate adaptation planning tools. The toolkit provides a rationale for how monitoring and evaluation support climate adaptation as well as guidance for how to envision adaptation success and then identify, prioritize, and track appropriate indicators and metrics. The Resilience Metrics toolkit represents the culmination of 10 years of work on adaptation process and success, six years of which involved the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. The project increased the capacity and tools for the Reserve system and national, state, and local decision-makers to lead and engage in conversations around climate adaptation. This catalyst project was funded by NOAA through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative to advance collaborative science. It did not produce any new data.

Changes in coastal conditions, including those associated with a shifting climate, can impact the spawning, growth, and ultimately, survival of commercially and recreationally important fisheries. To assess the impacts of climate on the sustainability of fish stocks and take appropriate action, management agencies need access to long-term datasets. Much of the needed data exists, but managers may lack access to it and scientists collecting the data may not know how to make it available to those who need it.

This project will 1) quantify pathogens, nutrients, and sediment delivery to the Rachel Carson Reserve; 2) create predictive models for shellfish and recreational waters in the North Carolina Reserve by using this information, along with decades of historical data; 3) engage stakeholders and end users to prioritize management options; and 4) engage coastal decision makers, community members, K-12 students, and teachers in hands-on education on stormwater runoff and its impacts.