Along the coast of southern Maine, the need to conserve natural buffers in order to protect rivers and wetlands has become a focal point for tensions between development and conservation interests. In this rapidly developing landscape, decision-makers often feel they must choose development over conservation or restoration to support local economies. While there is scientific evidence that underscores the value of protecting natural buffers around sensitive water bodies, local decision-makers need additional place-based, economic information about the ecosystem services that these lands provide and the range of tradeoffs that are implied in related land use decisions.

Through this project, results will be transferred to a variety of end users and products and activities will be developed with end user feedback. Products include a publication in a high impact scientific journal, a short user-friendly summary of this publication, well-designed PowerPoint presentations for a variety of audiences, and a "do it yourself" tool so others can apply the novel marsh assessment approach to additional marshes. The marsh index scores will also be linked directly to recommended coastal adaptation strategies, thereby meeting a frequently stated need to synthesize data on wetland resilience in a way that is transparent, clear, and accessible to coastal managers. 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.

Conservation and repair of the coastal wetland ecosystems’ in the Great Barrier Reef catchments have come into focus following media converging on the point that the reef health and land use in catchments has been compromised. While on-ground wetland repair investment activities are underway, data to demonstrate water quality and biodiversity return for the investment is not available. Here we continue working with project partners, further contributing to change management practices, consolidate new project partnerships, and road test the Queensland Wetlands Values Based Causal Framework using existing and new data.

1) The purpose of this project is to measure changes in juvenile salmon habitat occurrence and health following restoration activities at the Mirror Lake Complex and Horsetail Falls in the Lower Columbia River and estuary. Parameters measured include habitat conditions such as vegetation, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen; salmon diet and prey availability; weight, length, growth rate, lipid content, genetic stock, and chemical contaminant exposure. 2) Lyndal Johnson (NWFSC FTE) is the project lead, and other primary staff involved are Sean Sol and Paul Olson (NWFSC FTEs) and Kate Macneale (NWFSC term employee), but the project also involves other NWFSC FTEs, other term employees, contractors, and staff from other programs (Environmental Chemistry) and Divisions (FE, CB), as well as staff from collaborating agencies (e.g., the Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership). 3) The project involves field surveys in which parameters measured include habitat conditions such as vegetation, water temperature, and dissolved oxygen; salmon diet and prey availability; weight, length, growth rate, lipid content, genetic stock, and chemical contaminant exposure. 4) Specific products to be produced include annual reports for the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership, and manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. 5) Specific audiences include (but are not limited to) the Bonneville Power Administration and other federal, state, and local agencies involved with salmon recovery and environmental management in the Columbia Basin (e.g., EPA, Washington Department of Ecology, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the City of Portland), the NMFS regional office, and other agency and academic scientists. 6) This is a stand-alone project, but it is also a component of a larger action effectiveness monitoring program overseen by the Estuary Partnership. 7) This is an ongoing project with a soft completion deadline; however, there are specific tasks to be completed on a yearly basis. Chemical contaminants in chinook salmon bodies.

NOAA has designed and is currently implementing a hyporheic monitoring plan for the Thornton Creek watershed in North Seattle. This work is being conducted for Seattle Public Utilities, who in 2015 completed two large-scale floodplain reconnection projects in the Thornton Creek Watershed. This study will evaluate restoration effectiveness by comparing control and treatment study reaches to each other and to forested references streams before and after restoration. NOAAs data collection focuses on hyporheic invertebrates, water temperature, and nutrient concentrations. Hyporheic and surface water concentrations of DOC, TN, TP, and dissolved nutrients.

To build communication, coordination, and information sharing among scientists and restoration practitioners, this project established a coastwide network from Baja California to British Columbia, the Native Olympia Oyster Collaborative. The project team synthesized past restoration projects, developed an experimental design for future research, and created educational and outreach materials that convey the importance of native oyster restoration on the Pacific coast. These efforts engaged communities in Olympia oyster restoration, provided tools to enhance future restoration outcomes, and strengthened connections among researchers and practitioners to support ongoing collaboration. 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.

After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, federal and state agencies came together to form the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustee Council. The Council studied the effects of the oil spill and continues to pursue projects intended to restore the Gulf of Mexico to the condition it would have been in if the spill had not happened. The Trustee Implementation Groups will develop restoration projects and plans to accomplish the significant work needed for the Gulf. Development of these projects is guided by the programmatic restoration plan finalized in 2016 as part of a legal settlement with BP for up to $8.8 billion.

The current tools used to estimate the contribution of bank erosion to the Great Barrier Reef (i.e. SourceCatchments model), are based on empirical relationships using little or no data from tropical river systems. This project proposes to develop a revised methodology for estimating (a) the natural or bench-mark rates of bank erosion in tropical rivers (b) how this information can be coupled with improved data sets on channel morphology, site connectivity and sediment particle size to develop a more robust approach for identifying sites amendable to remediation and (c) where riparian restoration has occurred, evaluate the effectiveness of the remediation.

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.

Dams and Sediment in the Hudson answered key questions about how dam removal will impact conditions in the estuary and offered surprising new findings about tidal marshes in the Hudson River valley. The project used a multidisciplinary approach that combined field observations with an analysis of sediment transport using a proven hydrodynamic model. Researchers surveyed 17 representative dams in the Lower Hudson River watershed by measuring water depth and sediment thickness and collecting sediment cores. Results were extrapolated to the 1700 registered dams located on tributaries of the Lower Hudson River to estimate the total amount of sediment trapped in the watershed. These observations were complemented by an analysis of sediment discharge data from existing monitoring stations on tributaries to characterize typical sediment input to the estuary and conditions following major storm events. A numerical model of circulation and sediment transport in the estuary was used to evaluate the impact of dam removal scenarios. To understand sediment contributions to tidal wetlands along the Hudson, researchers collected transects of sediment core from 6 representative tidal wetlands and coves. Geochronological data of sediment cores combined with an analysis of historical and aerial photos was used to assess when wetlands began to form and their rates of accumulation. Results show that dam removals would have a minimal impact on sediment supply to the estuary and tidal wetland growth. Only 10% of dams in the Lower Hudson River watershed are effective sediment traps, and the potential amount of sediment that would be released if all dams were removed represents less than 2 years average sediment input from the watershed. Tidal wetlands along the Hudson were found to be remarkably young and rapidly accumulating sediment despite the presence of dams, growing vertically at rates several times faster than sea level rise.