Project Explorer

The project team will quantify the effects of oyster reef closures and other drivers on oyster reef functioning to help managers decide which reefs to close and when restoration is needed.

This project conducted a comprehensive review and assessment of ecosystem modeling efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.

Managers need to know if the Bahia Grande ecosystem is functioning as a nursery and/or foraging grounds for fish to make informed decisions regarding whether to open Bahia Grande to public use.

This project will scope and design a plan to address the uncertainties of restoring seagrasses and associated communities along barrier islands in Louisiana, which will inform the restoration and long-term adaptive management of the Chandeleur Islands.

This project is investigating the link between nutrients, food availability, and the survival of Atlantic bluefin tuna larvae, which can be used to improve stock assessments for this commercially and recreationally important species.

The project team will address existing limitations and uncertainties in fisheries stock assessments by developing novel model diagnostics and interim assessment methods, which will be incorporated into active stock assessments to reduce the error, uncertainty, and throughput delays associated with overfishing limits and acceptable biological catch estimates.

The project team will identify challenges to sustaining sport fish nursery habitats, map out realistic management strategies, and plan research that informs management choices.

This project will identify uncertainties around the effects of coastal bird stewardship and habitat management actions.

This project will develop a research plan to address conservation grazing, or the use of livestock as an alternative or complementary habitat management strategy, in coastal uplands of the northern Gulf of Mexico.

This project identifies long-term trends in fish, shrimp, cephalopods, and other fauna in the deep-pelagic Gulf of Mexico (open ocean midwaters beyond the continental shelf, from just below the surface to just above the bottom) and provides this information to resource managers responsible for the numerous species that rely on deep-pelagic fauna as prey, including marine mammals.

This project is determining where the corals in different mesophotic and deepwater populations in the Gulf of Mexico originated from, which is critical information for conserving and restoring these important habitats that were damaged by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

The project team seeks to develop statistical models, analyses, and conceptual models based on laboratory and survey data to help managers conduct more targeted and specific risk assessments of Houston-area bottlenose dolphins potentially injured by releases of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins.

This project is developing a new and innovative approach for attaching satellite-linked tags to small cetaceans without having to capture them.

The project team will use drone observations and NOAA forecasts to develop technology that seeks to improve manager response decisions to future oil spills in Galveston Bay and surrounding Texas coasts.

This project created a comprehensive guide for management using indicators of five common coastal habitats: salt marsh, mangrove, seagrass, oyster beds/reefs, and coral reefs.

This project is integrating information on ecosystem stressors and predator-prey interactions into the fisheries assessment and management process in the Gulf of Mexico.

This project will result in a management and forecast system that allows resource managers to explore tradeoffs from restoration strategies as well as examine and optimize various riverine inflows.

This project will explore the feasibility of a freshwater inflow decision tool that will provide managers with a better understanding of the impact of allowing water to flow to the coast, and how to maximize environmental, social, and economic benefits while adapting to changing conditions over time.

The objective of the proposed project is to provide a transparent decision support framework to make optimal recommendations for listed species while also considering landowner objectives using a case study at the Gulf Islands National Seashore complex.

Stakeholder engagement will inform the development of a conceptual model to help environmental managers forecast how Gulf of Mexico habitats and wildlife may respond to various island and beach restoration management actions.

The project characterized the temporal and spatial variability of physical and biochemical oceanographic parameters in the Gulf of Mexico.

This project explored how changes in the flow of the Mississippi River impact natural resources and their use in the Gulf of Mexico.

This project identified, developed, and evaluated ecological health and ecosystem services indicators and an associated assessment and decision framework.

This project adapted an existing computer model for assessing the suitability of a site for construction of a living shoreline, applied the model to Perdido Bay/Wolf Bay/Ono Island complex in coastal Alabama; Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana; and Galveston Bay, Texas, and developed an interactive decision support tool that allows for a rapid assessment of a site.

This project is developing a decision support tool to aid resource managers, municipalities, and a county with decisions related to the preservation and restoration of mangrove, marsh, and beach habitats; water management; and coastal planning, zoning, and land acquisition.