Data Management Plan (Deprecated)

NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) works in partnership with other federal agencies and coastal states to conduct assessments of ecological condition and potential stressor impacts throughout our Nation’s estuaries, coastal-ocean waters, and NOAA protected areas; carry out studies to determine environmental impacts of specific pollution events or natural disasters; and perform additional related research to develop new ecological indicators and improved diagnostic tools to assess, predict, and manage future conditions.

NCCOS has conducted a series of Regional Ecological Assessments (REA) aimed at evaluating condition of living resources and ecosystem stressors in estuarine and coastal areas including National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS), National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS), and continental shelf regions of the Mid-Atlantic Bight, South-Atlantic Bight, Florida Shelf, and Gulf of Mexico. Information from these studies provides a means to assess the current status of ecological condition and stressor impacts throughout these areas, and serves as a baseline for evaluating future changes due to natural or human-induced disturbances.

The NOAA National Benthic Inventory (NBI) is a quantitative database on benthic species distributions obtained from studies conducted by NOAA and partnering institutions in estuarine and other coastal-ocean areas around the country.

A corresponding taxonomic voucher collection of preserved benthic specimens collected in studies conducted between 1991 and 2007 was maintained at the NCCOS Charleston lab until April 2019. The voucher collection was transferred to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in May 2019 and will be incorporated into their Non-Molluscan Invertebrate research collections. More information can be found at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences website.

Process Steps:

• We have conducted a series of offshore surveys and reports assessing ecological conditions and stressor impacts throughout coastal shelf waters of the lower continental US, as well as NMSs, NERRs, and the Great Lakes. • We have developed a dynamic quantitative database on benthic species distributions obtained from studies conducted by NOAA and partnering institutions in estuarine and other coastal-ocean areas around the country (http://nbi.noaa.gov/). • We helped to develop the 2006 Management Plan and 2008 Sanctuary Condition Report for Gray’s Reef NMS off the coast of Georgia. • We have worked in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop multi-agency National Coastal Condition Reports (NCCRs), which serve as environmental report cards of the health of our nation’s coastal resources. While previous NCCRs have focused primarily on estuaries, our scientists were given the lead to develop a new series of offshore sections assessing the health of our coastal-ocean waters. • We have participated in a Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) study of potential effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on soft-bottom, deepwater benthic communities. • We have assessed the environmental impacts of extreme natural events such as Hurricane Katrina (USEPA 2007, Engle et al. 2009) and other major hurricanes (Balthis et al. 2006). • We have developed new ecological indicators and other diagnostic tools that improve our methods and abilities to assess coastal ecosystems. We will: • conduct additional surveys of ecological condition and stressor impacts in offshore coastal-shelf waters, Great Lakes, NMSs, and NERRS; • continue to partner with the EPA to develop future National Coastal Condition Reports; and • continue to advance the development of new indicators and data-analysis tools. (Citation: 01. Balthis, W.L., C. Cooksey, M.H. Fulton, J.L. Hyland, L.A. May, E.F. Wirth, and C.M. Woodley. 2018. Assessment of Ecological Condition and Potential Stressor Impacts in Offshore Areas of Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 254. Charleston, SC. 80 pp. https://doi.org/10.25923/vtsz-v706)

For details of data quality control methods, see Lineage Sources. All users should independently analyze the datasets according to their own needs and standards to determine data usability.

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