By developing stronger, more efficient, less costly restoration technologies,
the Restoration Center Research Program advances the science of restoration.
Benefiting from the collective experience of NOAA staff at five regional
Fisheries Science Centers (Florida, Massachusetts, California, Washington
and Alaska) and many partners, scientists work to understand how coastal
and marine habitats recover following restoration and what requirements
must be met to ensure that restoration is successful.
Understanding
what a habitat looked like before it was altered physically and/or chemically
is fundamental to the success of a restoration effort. Research yields
knowledge about the structure of the habitat in terms of plants, animals,
sediment and water regimes; and linkages/processes among habitats that
make them vital to living marine resources. Scientific research provides
the basis for sound recommendations on how to best approach the restoration
of a variety of habitat types and, in many instances, the know-how to
determine whether restoration is proceeding according to plan or requires
a course correction.
Photos by
NOAA Restoration Center
Poplar Island restoration in the Chesapeake Bay
Examples
of restoration research include examining salt marsh use by fisheries
in the Chesapeake Bay; evaluating recovery of shallow seagrass following
vessel groundings in Florida; assessing potential oil spill damage to
salt marsh habitat and fisheries in Texas; and designing a watershed management
plan to restore water quality and fish habitat in Alaska.
Poplar
Island Restoration Project
NOAA supports numerous restoration projects in the Chesapeake
Bay that are designed to determine the ecological value of restored
habitat to fisheries. One example is the collaborative work conducted
on Poplar Island, 34 miles south of Baltimore, Maryland. The U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, the Maryland Port Administration and
several other state and federal agencies are restoring the historic
footprint of an eroded 1,100-acre island. They are replacing an
island that had deteriorated over the past century to less than
four acres, resulting in loss of habitat for fish and wildlife
species.
This
is the four-acre remnant of the eroded 1,100-acre island that
once comprised Poplar Island. The original 1,100 acres will
be restored with uncontaminated sediments dredged from the Baltimore
Harbor navigational channel and 550 acres of intertidal wetlands
and 550 acres of upland. Valuable new habitat will be created
for wildlife. This project provides a placement site for clean
dredge material and habitat for fisheries and wildlife. Additional
restoration benefits are predicted to be a reduction in wave
energy within Poplar Harbor that could improve submerged aquatic
vegetation recruitment and fisheries use of the harbor area.
As part of the restoration process, salt marsh habitat and submerged
seagrass are currently being restored.
Using
various collection methods, baseline surveys were conducted
prior to project construction. These included monitoring the
community structure of fish, shrimp, crab and nekton use of
areas immediately affected by the restoration effort. Providing
a measure of habitat function prior to restoring the island
and its planned wetlands, the surveys also yield vital comparative
information when viewed in the context of current surveys. Reference
areas of different habitats (areas beyond those that might be
influenced by restoration) were also sampled for before/after
comparison of usage and examination of natural changes in usage
over time. One significant observation from initial monitoring
is that rockfish were more abundant in areas containing fallen
tree debris than in shallow water in the harbor or at reference
sites.
Chris
Doley, director of NOAA's Restoration Center, used a gillnet,
composed of various sized mesh, to collect larger fish that
inhabit near-shore shallow water habitats. The numbers and types
of species were measured to compare and determine use of shallow
water by large fish species. Along with Rich Takacs, fisheries
biologist at the Restoration Center, and Dave Meyer, research
fisheries biologist at NOAA’s Center for Coastal Fisheries
and Habitat Research in Beaufort, North Carolina, Chris is coordinating
on-site efforts with federal and state partners. Local groups
are helping with post-construction monitoring of the fish community.
Placement
of the catch/samples into buckets. Three mesh sizes were used
for each gillnet. Catch from each panel was placed in separate
buckets to track the size and quantity of species brought in
for each net's mesh size. Studies indicate that small creeks
flowing into natural marshes are key natural avenues for nekton
to access salt marshes, providing greater access into the marsh
and increasing the total amount of marsh area that can be used
by nekton. As the number of small creeks is increased, it is
possible that use of the marsh by fish – striped bass,
flounder, mullet and mummichog, among others – will increase
as well. With the aim of maximizing nekton usage, this and other
information obtained via scientific study of the functioning
of natural salt marsh habitat is being applied in planning the
wetland design of restored salt marshes at Poplar Island.
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Dave
Meyer sporting the "marsh boots" he designed to walk on
the marsh platform.
They worked!
These
are the results of surveys conducted at five sites located north
of Poplar Island. At each site the influence of small creeks
on fish, shrimp and crab usage was examined. Via systematic
observation, Spartina and Phragmites marshes
were surveyed and the occurrence of elevated vegetated marsh
surface (hummock) versus small channelized creeks was examined.
Dots indicate the intersect of hummocks. Darker blue areas indicate
deeper depths. Concurrent fish, shrimp and crab collection accompanied
the surveys. The information contributes to an understanding
of marsh attributes that influence abundance of fish, shrimp
and crab.
Mike Johnson, fisheries technician with NOAA Ocean and Coasts,
mapped an area at
Marshy Creek South.
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