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NOAA RESTORE Science Program and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) will support new synthesis research on recreational fish distribution and the impacts of habitat restoration.
Two projects, which will each receive two years of funding, were selected following a rigorous and competitive process that included a review by a panel of outside experts. These are the second set of projects to be funded through the Gulf Ecosystem Initiative, a $3.5 million partnership to fund synthesis science and postdoctoral research for the Gulf of Mexico.
One working group will be led by Margaret Lamont from the US Geological Survey’s Wetland and Aquatic Research Center. This group will synthesize long-term data describing the distribution of cobia, ocean surface temperature, and other environmental conditions to explore if cobia migration patterns are changing. The working group, which includes researchers, data analysts, and others with an interest in the fishery, will combine several sets of data with the objective of understanding the decline of cobia in Gulf waters off Northwest Florida.
A second working group led by Kerry Flaherty Walia (Tampa Bay Estuary Program) with co-leads Angela Collins (Florida Sea Grant) and Blake Simmons (Tampa Bay Estuary Program) will investigate how habitat restoration has impacted fish populations and fisheries in Florida’s estuaries. This group, which includes experts from fisheries ecology and management, coastal restoration, and human behavior, will leverage published research and existing data sources that describe habitat, fish and shellfish populations, the fishing industry, and restoration projects to determine if existing long-term data sets can assess the impact of habitat restoration on fish communities. The working group will also identify if additional data collection is needed to more fully understand the links between habitat restoration and estuarine fish.
Liying Li, a recent Ph.D. graduate from the University of California, Merced, will also join the 2024 Gulf Ecosystem Initiative cohort as a postdoctoral researcher. For her PhD research, she focused on the interconnectedness between water management, agricultural land use, and shorebird conservation in California’s Central Valley to understand how shorebird populations might shift with climate change. Li’s research focus will now shift to the Gulf of Mexico where she will use remote sensing and species distribution modeling to estimate the impacts of climate change and other human-caused disturbances to Gulf birds while also working alongside one or more of the funded working groups.
Over its five years, the Gulf Ecosystem Initiative will support up to 10 scientific working groups and up to eight postdoctoral fellows. The next call for proposals for the Gulf Ecosystem Initiative will be announced later this year.
This funding is provided through the RESTORE Act, also known as the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act, that authorized NOAA to establish and administer a Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Science, Observation, Monitoring, and Technology Program.
The Science Program is funded by 2.5% of the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund, which was established by the RESTORE Act. The Trust comprises 80% of the Clean Water Act civil penalties recovered from parties responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Collectively, the fines will result in at least $133 million in funding for the NOAA RESTORE Science Program.
The mission of the NOAA RESTORE Science Program is to increase understanding of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, including its fisheries, and to support its restoration and sustainability through research, observation, monitoring, and technology development.
NCEAS, in downtown Santa Barbara, is a research affiliate of University of California Santa Barbara. For over 25 years, NCEAS has supported hundreds of scientific synthesis working groups to transform existing data into knowledge that informs environmental policy and management.
NCEAS, in downtown Santa Barbara, is a research affiliate of University of California Santa Barbara. For over 25 years, NCEAS has supported hundreds of scientific synthesis working groups to transform existing data into knowledge that informs environmental policy and management.