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USING SPARROW MODEL RESULTS TO ASSIST WITH COASTAL WATER ASSESSMENT
Citation:
Walker, H A., E H. Dettmann, K. W. Robinson, R. B. Moore, C. Deacutis, AND J. B. Palter. USING SPARROW MODEL RESULTS TO ASSIST WITH COASTAL WATER ASSESSMENT. Presented at New England Association of Environmental Biologists, Hancock, MA, March 17-19, 2004.
Description:
The National Coastal Assessment (NCA) has proposed a national strategy for research and monitoring in support of coastal water assessment that involves three tiers: Problem Characterization (Tier 1), involving probabilistic surveys to document broad-scale response properties; Diagnosis of Causes (Tier 2), using issue-specific studies; and Intensive Monitoring at Research Index Sites (Tier 3), collecting information at higher spatial and temporal resolution to determine specific mechanisms of interaction needed to build cause and effect models. We illustrate this research and monitoring strategy using monitoring data from New England estuaries and results from the New England SPARROW model.
NCA probabilistic surveys are used to document regional gradients in coastal condition, e.g. nutrient and dissolved oxygen concentrations (Tier 1). To examine estuarine responses to nitrogen loading (Tier 2), we plan to use output from the New England SPARROW Model, supplemental data on discharges by wastewater treatment plants into tidal areas, estuary flushing times, and concentrations at the seaward boundaries, as input to a USEPA model to calculate annual average concentrations of total nitrogen in three New England estuaries: Narragansett Bay, Boston Harbor, and the Piscataqua Estuary. Data from moored instrumentation, at 12 sites in Narragansett Bay, have been used to document the formation and transport of water masses containing low dissolved oxygen (Tier 3). Targeted sampling at vulnerable (late-summer minimum neap) portions of the tidal cycle have been used to document episodic occurrence of hypoxia in Narragansett Bay. A combination of monitoring and modeling approaches is helping provide the information needed to predict regional and local estuarine responses to eutrophication.