Through a 2020 science transfer project, the Lake Superior and Heʻeia reserves and partners brought renewed attention to reserve site profiles and supported the development of a modernized format that better aligns with and boosts the impact of reserve programs.

Each reserve within the National Estuarine Research Reserve System maintains a specific site profile that synthesizes knowledge about its physical and biological characteristics to guide research and monitoring activities.

Ecosystem service assessments are a top priority at many reserves in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System.

Through a 2020 catalyst project, the Heʻeia and Kachemak Bay Reserves worked to advance the equitable representation of cultural ecosystem services in estuary stewardship by providing practical information and opportunities for facilitated exchange.

Cultural ecosystem services (CES), one of four main categories of ecosystem services, are often described as the non-material benefits that humans receive from their interactions with the environment.

With funding from the NERRS Science Collaborative, scientists from 12 biogeographically diverse Reserves compared fluorescence measurements taken by the YSI EXO TAL sensor to extracted chlorophyll concentrations processed in the lab.

Standardized protocols for sensor-based chlorophyll monitoring are now available for use by staff around the system to implement high frequency chlorophyll monitoring at their reserves.

Project Lead Nikki Dix (Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve) gives a 5-minute introduction to "Refining Techniques for High-frequency Monitoring of Chlorophyll Alpha in the NERRS," a catalyst project funded in 2020 by the NERRS Science Collaborative.

This factsheet, developed by a 2020 catalyst project, provides a brief overview of CES frameworks and categories to complement the information contained in the factsheet “Expanding and Deepening the Application of Cultural Ecosystem Services in Estuary Stewardship and Management ”.