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ECOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO POLLUTION ABATEMENT: A FRAMEWORK FOR MEASUREMENT AND ASSESSMENT FOR COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS
Citation:
Davis, W P. AND G M. Cripe. ECOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO POLLUTION ABATEMENT: A FRAMEWORK FOR MEASUREMENT AND ASSESSMENT FOR COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS. Presented at An Estuarine Odyssey, St. Pete Beach, 4-8 Nov., 2001.
Description:
Ecological Responses to Pollution Abatement: A Framework for Measurement and Assessment for Coastal Ecosystems (Abstract). To be presented at the 16th Biennial Conference of the Estuarine Research Foundation, ERF 2001: An Estuarine Odyssey, 4-8 November 2001, St. Pete Beach, FL. 1 p. (ERL,GB R847).
Coastal habitat restoration and rehabilitation have often been mitigation driven actions. Ecological objectives logically would be the same, or very similar to goals for protection of essential fisheries habitat (EFH), which has arisen from legislation. Both of these environmental actions should be designed to sustain functions of coastal habitat including nurseries, foraging wildlife, and fisheries populations. The indicators and measurements applied in assessment of these efforts should be very similar, if not identical.
For many coastal habitats in the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, rehabilitation strategies must consider the dynamic interactions of biological responses to physical parameters, together with effects of xenobiotic pollutants. A working example might be a conceptual rehabilitation of coastal habitats impacted by sewage or pulp mill effluents. The strategy for rehabilitation should include consideration of species populations, measures of successful life-history completion, physical-chemical parameters and selected indicators of functional bio-diversity. This poster summarizes strategies of assessment measures and poses questions for the selection of the ecological/biological indicators traditionally in evaluation of restoration and rehabilitation efforts in coastal aquatic habitats.