ecosystem health

Carbon dioxide is polluting the ocean: tackling ocean acidification under the Clean Water Act

Submitted by eloury on Wed, 2010-12-01 15:58
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Animals like corals that depend on calcium carbonate to construct their skeletons are on the frontlines of the ocean's rising acidity. (photo: M. Fox)

by Melissa Foley, Science Early Career Fellow and Erin Loury, Science Communication Intern.

Ocean acidification, or the increase of low-pH, corrosive ocean waters, certainly qualifies as a process that impairs water quality.   Now the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created guidance to address ocean acidification under the Clean Water Act. 

On November 15th, the EPA released a Memorandum to guide regions and states in reporting the impacts of ocean acidification under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act, which requires states to submit a list of impaired water bodies that do not meet water quality standards, and develop total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for these waters.  A TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a body of water can receive and still safely meet water quality standards.  In the case of ocean acidification, the main pollutant in question is carbon dioxide (CO2).  Read more...

Status Update for California's Wetlands: Some Loss, Some Gain

Submitted by eloury on Fri, 2010-10-22 13:55
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Researchers in the mudflats of the Morro Bay Estuary. (photo: Mike Baird)

by Erin Loury, Science Communication Intern

Buffer in a storm, migratory rest stop, water filter, crucial habitat and protected nursery ground – California’s wetlands perform many roles at that special zone where land and water meet.  Neither fully terrestrial nor completely aquatic, these unique habitats grace every California landscape, from desert playas to mountain meadows.  Now the California Natural Resources Agency has released the second State of the State’s Wetlands report (pdf), which summarizes efforts to protect, monitor, and restore our wetlands between 1999 and 2009.  

This current chapter in the wetlands story unfolds against a historical backdrop of great destruction: between 1780’s and 1980’s, California lost over 90% of its wetland area. The 2.9 million acres that remain encompass mostly freshwater sources, such as lakes, vernal pools, marshes and springs.  Recognizing the many valuable services that wetlands provide, California voters have approved at least five bond measures, and invested billions of dollars over the past ten years to protect and restore wetlands.  The report notes substantial wetland increases in San Francisco Bay, along California’s south coast, in the Central Valley and in the Sierras. Read more... 

Surveying the Davidson Seamount: Where are the Humbolt Squid?

Submitted by eloury on Wed, 2010-08-04 10:17
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No trace: researchers found no signs of the Humbolt Squid on a recent trip to the Davidson Seamount, an extinct underwater volcano offshore from Monterey. (photo (c) 2003 MBARI)

Julie Stewartby Julie Stewart, MARINE curriculum intern

The NOAA research vessel MacArthur II recently journeyed to the Davidson Seamount, an extinct underwater volcano about 80 miles offshore from the Monterey Peninsula. Our mission was to conduct surveys of the marine mammals and seabirds in the area.  The seamount is about 26 miles long by 8 miles wide, and comes as shallow as 1.5 kilometers below the surface (the seafloor otherwise sits around 3.5 kilometers deep). This is a very productive area: as deep currents hit the seamount, they are redirected up towards the surface, so there are high concentrations of krill and other plankton that provide food for higher predators.

While remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have documented some of the seafloor (discovering amazing soft corals, among other things), little was known about the marine mammal and seabird populations so far from shore.  Read more...

Obama announces a National Ocean Policy to guide our management of the ocean

Submitted by eloury on Tue, 2010-07-20 12:59
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Obama's new National Ocean Policy charts a sustainable course of ocean conservation and management for future generations (photo:Steve Lonhart, SIMoN NOAA)  

by Erin Loury, Science Communication Intern

Some good news for the oceans! On July 19th, President Obama signed an Executive Order that establishes a National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes. The Executive Order adopts the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force (pdf), also released on July 19th after a year of research and deliberation. The Order and Recommendations highlight the importance of ecosystem health and biological diversity to human well-being, acknowledge the threats of climate change and ocean acidification, and call for the implementation of comprehensive coastal and marine spatial planning.

Both the Order and the Final Recommendations invoke the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the environmental crisis in the Gulf of Mexico as “a stark reminder of how vulnerable our marine environments are, and how much communities and the Nation rely on healthy and resilient ocean and coastal ecosystems.”

“Until now, there has been no cohesive, strategic vision for where the country is going with respect to ocean health and ocean resource management,” said Matthew Armsby of the Center for Ocean Solution’s (COS) marine spatial planning team on the significance of this Order.  “We’ve had many different laws and policies, but the nation’s resource managers lacked a meaningful prioritization of ecosystem health and sustainability.  Read more...

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