This document is a compilation of the current management and knowledge exchange needs within NOAA’s reserve system. These needs are submitted by the reserves and updated on an annual basis.
This reserve management and knowledge exchange needs summary supports the development of collaborative science projects, provides insight to important and timely issues at the reserves, and assists in identifying systemwide topics of interest.
Science Collaborative research priorities and reserve needs reflect both NOAA and reserve priorities set forth in the NERRS strategic plan (climate change, water quality, and habitat protection) as well as individual reserve needs at the local level.
Science Collaborative Research Priorities:
These management needs are consistent with one or several of the Science Collaborative research priorities, which are:
- Community Resilience and Adaptability - Understanding how communities rely on and engage with estuarine systems, particularly aspects of human dimensions and cultural ecosystem services, and what behavior changes may enhance resilience to changes to those systems.
- Habitat Adaptability - Investigating options for improving estuarine habitat resilience and migration, including response to habitat stressors (e.g., sea level rise, marine debris, invasive species, coastal development, native species displacement, climate change); processes for identifying, prioritizing, and restoring sites; and monitoring and evaluating success.
- Watershed Dynamics - Understanding the impacts to water quality and quantity from land use, excessive nutrient pollution (eutrophication), and contamination in estuarine ecosystems, and the options for management and mitigation; investigating drivers of change on the watershed scale and impacts to biogeochemical cycles and substrates.
- Change Analysis - Investigating and understanding marsh health through research using long-term monitoring data and information, originating from programs such as the NERRS System-wide Monitoring Program and associated monitoring efforts; conduct estuary condition analyses.
Download PDF: 2026 Summary of Reserve Management and Knowledge Exchange Needs
Key words by region:
Jobos Bay, Puerto Rico | Contact: Angel Dieppa, Research Coordinator, [email protected].
- Seagrasses; Invasive Species; Microplastics; Anoxia and Hypoxia
- Coral Reefs; Restoration; Invasive Species
- Mangroves; Resilience; Socioeconomic; Services
- Restoration; Resilience; Living Shorelines
- SWMP; Water Quality; Data Management; Modeling
Lake Superior, Wisconsin | Contact: Deanna Erickson, Manager, [email protected]
- Wetlands; Invasive Species; Restoration, Coastal Forests
- Collaborative Research/Co-production; Education and Outreach; Impacts; Evaluation
- Climate Adaptation; Living Shorelines; Nature-based Solutions; Wetlands; Traditional Ecological Knowledge
- Biocultural Restoration; Resilience; Traditional Ecological Knowledge; Collaborative Research/Co-production, Transdisciplinary Research
- Harmful Algal Blooms; Freshwater Ecosystems; Impacts; Monitoring; Water Quality
Old Woman Creek, Ohio | Contact: Janice Kerns, Manager, [email protected]
- Biogeochemistry; Data Analysis and Visualization; Nutrient Cycling; Wetlands
- Nutrient Cycling; Sediment Transport; Carbon; Hydrodynamics and Hydrology
- Nature-based Shorelines; Living Shorelines; Erosion; Coastal Engineering
- Marine Debris; Microplastics; Water Quality
- Restoration; Ecosystem Services; Management; Invasive Species
Apalachicola, Florida | Contact: Megan Lamb, Research Coordinator, [email protected]
- Habitat; Coastal Flooding; Tropicalization; Resilience
- Hydrodynamics and Hydrology; Nutrient Cycling; Carbon
- Plankton Ecology; Phytoplankton; Hydrodynamics and Hydrology; Nutrient Cycling
- Humanities/Human Dimensions; Education and Outreach; Assessment
- Ecosystem Services; Economy/Economics; Humanities/Human Dimensions; Collaborative Research/Co-production
Grand Bay, Mississippi | Contact: Ayesha Gray, Manager, [email protected]
- Restoration; Research; Effectiveness Monitoring
- Physical Processes; Ecological Processes; Sediment Dynamics; Populations
- Contaminants; Impacts; Mitigation
- Population Distribution; Population Ecology; Ecology
- Socio-economic Impact; Ecosystem Restoration; Coastal Habitats
Mission-Aransas, Texas | Contact: Katie Swanson, Reserve Manager, [email protected]
- Climate Change; Sea Level Rise; Communication; Impacts
- Habitat, Mapping, Remote Sensing, SWMP
- eDNA; Monitoring; Invasive; Bioacoustics
- SWMP; SET; Anthropogenic Impacts; Data Analysis, Data Mining, and Visualization
- SWMP, Seagrass, Management, Monitoring
Rookery Bay, Florida | Contact: Nerea Ubierna, Research Coordinator, [email protected]
- Mangrove Forest; Migration; Uncrewed Aircraft Systems/Drones; Set/Surface Elevation Tables/Change
- SWMP; Data Analysis/Data Mining and Visualization; Fisheries; Assessment
- Monitoring; Indicators; Invertebrates; Biological Invasions/Invasive Species
- History; Community Science; Traditional Ecological Knowledge; Education and Outreach
- Benthic Ecology; Oyster Reefs; Seagrasses and Other Submerged Aquatic Vegetation; Environmental DNA (eDNA)
Weeks Bay, Alabama | Contact: Angela Underwood, Manager, [email protected]
- Living shoreline; Nature-based solutions; Resilience; Education and outreach
- Marine debris/marine plastic pollution; Policy; Humanities/human dimensions
- Management; Prescribed fire; Education and outreach
- Anthropogenic impacts; Watershed ecology; Emerging contaminants; Water quality
- Spatial ecology; Wildlife; Migrations; Habitat
Chesapeake Bay, Maryland | Contact: Kyle Derby, Research Coordinator, [email protected]
- Data Analysis, Data Mining, and Visualization; Wetlands Indicators; Impacts
- Restoration; Migration; Wetlands; Coastal Forests
- Benthic Ecology; Seagrasses and Other Submerged Aquatic Vegetation; Ecosystem-Based Management; Monitoring
- Humanities/Human Dimensions; Education and Outreach; Art; Local Ecological Knowledge
Chesapeake Bay, Virginia | Contact: William Reay, Reserve Manager, [email protected]
- Groundwater; Hydrodynamics and Hydrology
- Seagrasses and Other SAV; Marshes; Ecosystem Services; Restoration
- Harmful Algal Blooms; Water Quality; Aquaculture; Economy
- Nutrients; Sediment; Modeling; Eutrophication
- Community; Communication; Human Dimensions
Delaware | Contact: Rachael Phillos, Reserve Manager, [email protected]
- Monitoring; Habitat; Ecosystem; Indicators
- Bioacoustics; Wildlife; Community Ecology; Monitoring
- Climate Change; Habitat Resilience; Ecosystem Services; Water Quality
- Climate Change; Habitat Resilience
- Climate Change; Habitat Resilience; Ecosystem Services; Water Quality
Hudson River, New York | Contact: Sarah Fernald, Reserve Manager, [email protected]
- Education and Outreach
- Submerged Aquatic Vegetation; Fish Ecology; Ecosystem Services; Restoration
- Data Analysis, Data Mining, and Visualization; Fisheries; Habitat; Water Quality
- Submerged Aquatic Vegetation; Restoration; Data Analysis, Data Mining, and Visualization
- Blue Carbon; Tidal Freshwater Ecosystems; Biogeochemistry
Jacques Cousteau, New Jersey | Contact: Mike De Luca, Manager, [email protected]
- Human Dimensions; Communication; Impacts
- Ecological Modeling; Water Quality; Habitat; Migration
- Nature-Based Solutions; Living Shorelines; Thin Layer Placement; Restoration
- Resilience; Climate Change; Evaluation
- Bioacoustics; Habitat; Migration; Fish Ecology
Connecticut | Contact: Kevin O'Brien, Research Manager, kevin.o'[email protected]
- Seagrasses and Other Submerged Aquatic Vegetation; Management; Shellfish; Ecosystem Services
- Data Analysis, Data Mining, and Visualization; Water Quality; Habitat; Anthropogenic Impacts
- Nature-Based Solutions; Monitoring; Resilience; Socioecology
- Habitat; Anoxia and Hypoxia; Water Quality; Eutrophication
- Ecosystem Services; Nutrient Cycling; Wetlands; Coastal Forests
Great Bay, New Hampshire | Contact: Cory Riley, Reserve Manager, [email protected]
- Monitoring; Transdisciplinary Research; Communication; Data Analysis, Mining and Visualization
- Restoration; Marshes; Migration; Monitoring
- Humanities/Human Dimensions; Education and Outreach; Management; Policy
- Oyster Reefs; Restoration; Aquaculture; Seagrasses and Other Submerged Aquatic Vegetation
- Hydrodynamics and Hydrology; Infrastructure; Dams; Connectivity
Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island | Contact: Caitlin Chaffee, Reserve Manager, [email protected]
- Climate Change; Resilience; Habitat; Community
- Ecosystem Services; Behavior Change; Management
- Habitat; Resilience; Wildlife; Restoration
- Stormwater; Water Quality; Management; BMPs
Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts | Contact: Tonna-Marie Rogers, Reserve Manager, [email protected]
- Water Quality; Emerging Contaminants, Management; Education and Outreach
- Resilience; Ecosystem Services; Nature-Based Solutions; Blue Carbons
- Climate Change; Anoxia and Hypoxia; Biological Invasions/Invasive Species; SWMP
- Restoration; Biogeochemistry; Seagrasses and Other Submerged Aquatic Vegetation; Benthic
- Human Dimensions, Community Science, Education and Outreach
Wells, Maine | Contacts: Jason Goldstein, Research Director, [email protected]; Jessica Brunacini, CTP Director, [email protected]
- Nature-Based Solutions; Coastal Resilience; Ecosystem Services; Equity
- Sea Level Rise; Coastal Resilience; Community Engagement; Human Dimensions
- Submerged Aquatic Vegetation; Best Practices; Long-Term Monitoring; Environmental Drivers
- Biophysical Monitoring; Invasive Species; Anthropogenic Impacts; eDNA
- SWMP; Environmental Drivers; Spatio-Temporal Changes; Teachers On The Estuary
ACE Basin, South Carolina | Contact: Julie Binz, Manager, [email protected]
- Ecosystem Services; Communication; Education and Outreach; Human Dimensions
- Communication; Nature-Based Solutions; Anthropogenic Impacts; Urban Coastal and Estuarine Ecosystems
- Communication; Nature-Based Solutions; Anthropogenic Impacts; Urban Coastal and Estuarine Ecosystems
- Sea Level Rise; Habitat; Restoration; Climate Change
- Data Analysis; Estuarine and Coastal Modeling Integrated Ecosystem Assessment; Data Visualization
Guana Tolomato Matanzas, Florida | Contact: Lia Sansom, Manager, [email protected]
- Fisheries; Water Quality; Wetlands
- Aquaculture; Ecosystem Services
- Sediment Accumulation/Accretion; Sediment Transport; Hydrodynamics
- Phytoplankton; Monitoring
- Transdisciplinary Research; Integrated Ecosystem Assessment; Ecological Modeling; Data Analysis, Data Mining, and Visualization
North Carolina | Contact: Justin Ridge, Research Coordinator, [email protected]
- Mapping, Remote Sensing; Seagrasses and Other Submerged Aquatic Vegetation; Oyster Reefs
- Community Ecology; Environmental DNA (eDNA); Stable Isotopes; Ecosystem Services
- Water Quality; Sea Level Rise; Monitoring
- Resilience; Sediment Transport; Restoration; Modeling
- Data Analysis, Data Mining, and Visualization; Water Quality; SWMP
North Inlet-Winyah Bay, South Carolina | Contact: Erik Smith, Manager, [email protected]
- Marsh; Sea Level Rise; Spatial Variability; Adaptation
- Habitat Provisioning; Natural Resource Use; Ecosystem-Based Management;
- Stormwater; Water Quality; Sustainable Development
- Oysters; Habitat Provisioning; Reef Biota; Assessment
- Climate Change; Eutrophication; Estuarine Fauna; Coastal Habitats
Sapelo Island, Georgia | Contact: Rachel Guy, Manager, [email protected]
- Green Infrastructure; Community Resilience; Economic
- Mangroves; Range Expansion; Climate Change
- Water Quality; Coastal Development; Impervious Surface
- SWMP; Climate Change; Biota; Communities
West Coast Regional Need | Contact: Kerstin Wasson, Research Coordinator, Elkhorn Slough NERR, [email protected]
All five Reserves on the contiguous Pacific coast are engaged in native oyster conservation science, through monitoring and/or restoration activities. They worked together to launch the Native Olympia Oyster Collaborative, a community of practice for diverse stakeholders, from Reserves to Tribes to oyster growers to restoration practitioners. This collaborative has identified a strong need for community outreach and education, for consistent oyster monitoring protocols that could be developed and used across the Region, and for coordinated restoration experiments, to develop and test effective approaches to be implemented by Reserves and partners.
Keywords: Oyster Reef; Restoration
Elkhorn Slough, California | Contact: Kerstin Wasson, Research Coordinator, [email protected]
- Restoration; Resilience, Nature-Based Solutions
- Eutrophication; Biological Invasions; Dikes
- Sea-Level Rise; Resilience; Climate Adaptation
Kachemak Bay, Alaska | Contact: Katherine Schake, Reserve Manager, [email protected]
- Education; Workforce; Applications; Change
- Community Ecology; Community Science; Habitats; Intertidal
- Community Ecology; Ecosystem Services; Biocultural; Tribal Engagement
- Monitoring; Data Analysis; Education and Outreach; Synthesis
- Education and Outreach; Evaluation; TOTE, Cultural Ecosystem Services
Padilla Bay, Washington | Contact: Jude Apple, Manager, [email protected]
- Climate Change; Eelgrass; Sociocultural Systems; Resilience; Agriculture
- Ecosystem Services; Land Use; Eelgrass; Agriculture; Carbon Sequestration
- Data Synthesis; Data Literacy; Education; Land Use
- Biocultural Restoration; Communities; Resilience; Ecosystem Services
- Remote Sensing; Eelgrass; Resilience; Change Analysis
San Francisco Bay, California | Contact: Matt Ferner, Reserve Manager, [email protected]
- Aquaculture; Larval Ecology/Transport; Oyster Reefs; Water Quality
- Biological Invasions/Invasive Species; Resilience; Conservation; Wildlife
- Connectivity; Culverts; Ecological Modeling; Hydrodynamics and Hydrology
South Slough, Oregon | Contact: Patricia Fox, Reserve Manager, [email protected],
- Environmental Challenges; Environmental Justice
- Indigenous; Knowledge; Biocultural; Resilience
- Restoration; Resiliency; Invasive Species
- Humans; Climate Change; Behavioral Change
- Monitoring; Data; Education; Water Quality
Tijuana River, California | Contact: Jeff Crooks, Research Coordinator, [email protected]
- Restoration; Water Quality; Habitats; Species
- Sediment; Beneficial Re-Use; Restoration
- Marine Debris; Plastics; Watershed
- Tidal Prism; Inlet; Ocean-Estuary Exchange
- Climate Change; Tribal Engagement; Cultural Heritage
Heʻeia, Hawaiʻi | Contact: Shimi Rii, Research Coordinator, [email protected]
- Socioecology; Humanities/Human Dimensions; Local Ecological Knowledge; Ecosystem Services
- Local Ecological Knowledge; Collaborative Research/Co-Production; Indigenous Resource Management; Community-Based Planning
- Co-Production; Evaluation; Traditional Ecological Knowledge; Education and Outreach; Humanities/Human Dimensions
- Environmental DNA (eDNA); SWMP; Assessment; Data Analysis, Data Mining, and Visualization
- Climate Change; Nutrient Cycling; Plankton Ecology; Food Web Ecology
National Need: Synthesis of SWMP Data | Contact: Kerstin Wasson, Research Coordinator, Elkhorn Slough NERR, [email protected]
Reserve staff have pioneered NERR syntheses, AND have led assessments of marsh resilience and crab dynamics across 15 Reserves, thin-layer sediment addition across 8 Reserves, and habitat change across all 30 Reserves, BUT there is no clear national plan for regular syntheses to be conducted repeatedly, THEREFORE we welcome multi-sectoral, collaborative efforts to develop and test templates for regular, repeated national syntheses of marsh resilience, water quality, or habitat mapping and change.
Keywords: Data Analysis, Data Mining, and Visualization; SWMP; Water Quality
National Need: Novel Monitoring Approaches | Contact: Kerstin Wasson, Elkhorn Slough NERR Research Coordinator, [email protected]
The Reserves conduct rigorous system-wide monitoring using selected methodologies and indicators. Newer approaches could complement existing Reserve monitoring, and eventually be incorporated systemwide. For example, unoccupied aerial vehicles can provide monitoring complementary to field vegetation transects and to habitat mapping. Environmental DNA monitoring could be conducted on the same water samples collected monthly for nutrient analyses. The Reserves thus would benefit from tests of the feasibility and applications of new methodologies that would be affordable and sustainable as future components of system-wide monitoring.
Keywords: Mapping; Uncrewed Aircraft Systems; Environmental DNA; Monitoring
National Need: Wetlands and Water Levels Applications | Contact: Kerstin Wasson, Elkhorn Slough NERR Research Coordinator, [email protected]
The Reserves have developed monitoring to evaluate the resilience of coastal vegetation in the face of changing water levels, specifically to inform management and support education and outreach. As the Reserves move towards implementing this approach system-wide, it would be valuable to have templates for applications, such as for workshops for coastal managers where the new data are used for spatial planning, or for interactive activities and curriculum for students. We therefore welcome projects that design and test templates effective for Reserve use that apply NERR wetlands and water levels data to management or education needs.
Keywords: Resilience; Wetlands; SET; Data Analysis, Data Mining, and Visualization
National Need: Enhancing Resilience in the NERRs Coastal Communities | Contact: Marissa Figueroa, Rookery Bay NERR Coastal Training Program Training Coordinator, [email protected]
Estuarine environments are vital to the health of coastal systems, providing essential ecosystem services such as storm protection. Coastal communities and reserves are increasingly working to build resilience to long-term change and are developing vulnerability assessments to help guide these efforts. However, translating assessment findings into on-the-ground action often proves challenging due to a variety of institutional, technical, and resource-related barriers. As a result, there is a clear management need to identify and better understand these obstacles and to establish a neutral platform where reserves and communities can share lessons learned - including successes and setbacks - to strengthen implementation efforts across the NERRS system and beyond.
Keywords: Coastal Resilience; Humanities / Human Dimensions; Ecosystem-based Management
National Need: Connecting Ecosystem Health to Human Well-being to Protect Lives and Livelihoods in the NERRS | Contact: Syverine Bentz, Kachemak Bay NERR Coastal Training Program Coordinator, [email protected]
Estuarine ecosystems are essential to community health, economic stability, and natural resource protection. The NERRS provides critical long-term environmental monitoring that supports these benefits. However, many communities lack the tools to translate changes in water quality, habitat, or pollution into actionable information about human health risks, such as illness from harmful algal blooms, unsafe drinking water, or impacts on fisheries and coastal livelihoods. Without linking environmental trends to measurable health and social indicators, decision-makers lack understanding of impacts on community well-being. Integrating environmental monitoring with human health and social science data is a critical management need to improve risk management, protect public health, and strengthen economic resilience.
Keywords: Water Quality; Monitoring; Indicators; Humanities/Human Dimensions
National Need: Engaging Real Estate Professionals to Build Coastal Resilience | Contact: Whitney Jenkins, North Carolina NERR Coastal Training Program Coordinator, [email protected]
Decisions about land purchase and development near rivers, wetlands, and coastal areas shape ecosystem health and community resilience. Several NERRS are engaging real estate professionals through accredited trainings on coastal living, flood risk, and buffer regulations, recognizing their role as trusted messengers influencing choices with lasting impacts. However, these efforts remain fragmented across the system. This creates an opportunity for a catalyst or knowledge-exchange effort that would help reserves and partners to share lessons learned, co-develop new engagement and evaluation frameworks, enhance training materials, and refine social science research approaches to maximize impact with this influential audience.
Keywords: Resilience; Humanities / Human Dimensions; Climate Adaptation; Education and Outreach