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The National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) consists of 28 coastal reserves located across the United States. A system-wide monitoring program was established in 1995 to develop quantitative measurements of short-term variability and long-term changes in abiotic and biotic properties of estuarine ecosystems for the purpose of informing effective coastal management. The hallmarks of this program are its two decades of data collection, the use of common protocols and instrumentation across all observing platforms, and a centralized approach to data quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC). By using standardized procedures at all reserves, this monitoring program generates a national database on estuarine ecosystems, and it creates a network of sentinel sites for detecting and understanding the effects of climate change. Examples of how these data inform coastal managers include water quality assessment, habitat mapping and change analysis, establishment of nutrient criteria for estuaries, and understanding the predicted impacts of climate change. |
