Maryland’s coastal marshlands are under siege from rising sea levels and historic land use practices, such as intensive wetland ditching. When the marshlands go they take vital services with them, such as protection from storm surge and flooding. While there is an urgent need to address this problem, decision-makers lack the collaborative partnerships and science-based information needed to develop and apply effective management solutions.

The Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve will work collaboratively with New York State agencies to capture what is known about nature-based shoreline stabilization approaches and other natural and nature-based features to reduce risk and enhance resilience. This will include joint review of existing policies, practices, and guidance; exploration of opportunities to enhance these programs and guidance; and recommendations for new or updated decision support frameworks. The team will facilitate the information exchange among agencies and consensus on how and where to promote and implement nature-based shoreline protection and natural resilience measures in New York. The project will ultimately result in a significantly higher percentage of shoreline management projects that are designed to benefit natural habitats and reduce risk for human communities. 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.

In this project, National Estuarine Research Reserves in North and South Carolina worked to improve local understanding of climate change effects on southeastern salt marsh and provide decision makers with the information and skills they need to address these vulnerabilities. North Carolina Reserve staff members were trained in the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Tool for Coastal Habitats (CCVATCH) by their colleagues from North Inlet-Winyah Bay Reserve. This decision support tool incorporates existing information on climate change impacts with knowledge of local conditions to help users develop vulnerability scores for specific areas. The project team used CCVATCH to conduct habitat vulnerability assessments for seven estuaries in North and South Carolina, summarized regional findings to help managers in the Southeast improve salt marsh resilience, and developed guidance and outreach products. 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.

Climate change is a pressing concern for Alaska's coastal communities and fisheries businesses facing disruptions to the abundance and reliability of fish populations. As decision-makers in south-central Alaska began climate adaptation planning, they recognized that fishermen were often under-engaged in resilience conversations and lacked resources to integrate climate risks into business strategic planning. In response to this need, a collaborative project led by the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve provided business resilience tools and training to strengthen a network of local fisheries businesses prepared for climate impacts. The project adapted a Fisheries Resilience Index business self-assessment for Alaska, convened a network of local fisheries stakeholders, and held a series of multi-sector fisheries business resilience workshops. 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.

In South Carolina, the Eastern oyster is an ecosystem “all-star.” It filters huge volumes of water, creates habitat for commercial and recreational fisheries, and is a local delicacy. Thriving oyster reefs serve as natural breakwaters protecting South Carolina’s fringing marshes from wave action and erosion. The loss of oyster reefs—whether caused by development, pollution, overharvest, disease, or sea level rise—accelerates coastal erosion and causes ecosystem health to decline. These impacts are especially apparent along the state’s heavily trafficked Intracoastal Waterway and its barrier islands, which historically have protected the mainland from the Atlantic’s waves and storms.

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.

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 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.

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.

Thin-layer placement (TLP) is an emergent climate adaptation strategy that mimics natural deposition processes in tidal marshes by adding a small amount of sediment on top of marsh in order to maintain elevation relative to sea level rise. This project addressed the needs of coastal managers and restoration practitioners for more information about TLP's effectiveness across diverse marsh plant communities and regions. Researchers conducted coordinated restoration experiments at eight National Estuarine Research Reserves across the East and West Coasts. The team assessed the impact of elevation, sediment type, and layer thickness on the success of this marsh adaptation technique. Greenhouse experiments exploring the effect of sediment texture and the addition of biochar as a soil amendment complemented these field studies. To support future use of TLP, the project team and an advisory committee of coastal managers at state and federal agencies and nonprofit groups created a suite of guidance documents including a consensus statement on thin-layer placement in tidal marsh ecosystems.