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Just how much phosphorus can a wetland absorb and retain over the long run? That’s the question that researchers spent two years investigating as part of an effort to reduce the phosphorus loading that is fueling algal blooms in Lake Erie. A research team from Old Woman Creek Reserve and the University of Toledo developed a Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach to calculate the phosphorus retention capacity of wetlands with limited datasets.

In this webinar, the team shared some of their key findings and the management implications, and explained how other practitioners could use their monitoring guide and statistical codes to calculate the nutrient retention capacity of their wetlands. In addition to taking audience questions, the team offered some ideas about how their work informed an ambitious water quality initiative in Ohio. To learn more, visit the team’s project page.

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	Kristi Arend, PhD is the Research Coordinator at Old Woman Creek Reserve, where she has overseen the implementation and onsite expansion of the System-wide Monitoring Program and has collaborated on projects related to wetland nutrient dynamics, shoreline development, and the impacts of Lake Erie water level change on wetland ecosystem indicators. As lead for this Science Collaborative project, Kristi coordinated the research team, helped analyze a long term record of TP flowing into and out of her reserve’s wetlands, and led the development of monitoring protocols.
	Emily Kuzmick is the Coastal Training Program Coordinator at the Old Woman Creek Reserve, where she works with environmental professionals to provide training and technical assistance relating to stormwater and nutrient management, land-use practices, species and habitat monitoring, shoreline erosion control solutions, and other identified Great Lakes coastal issues. As Collaborative Lead for this project, Emily facilitated Project Team meetings and a Collaborative Learning Group composed of wetland management professionals to provide feedback on the project methods, results, and communication products.
	Song Qian, PhD is an Associate Professor in University of Toledo’s Department of Environmental Sciences. He is an expert in environmental and ecological statistics, particularly the applications of Bayesian statistics which he has applied to a range of issues including phosphorus retention in the Everglades wetlands. As part of this project, Song led the statistical analyses of wetland datasets, assisted in creating the monitoring guidelines and protocol, and recruited and supervised students.

Learn more about related project: Quantifying Nutrient Retention by Lake Erie Coastal Wetlands

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Resilience dialogues are conversations that occur among people with diverse perspectives who have agreed to work together to increase community and ecological resilience. Planning and facilitating resilience dialogues requires skills in collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and conflict management.

The Resilience Dialogues project looked across a decade of collaborative science projects to distill key lessons learned and best practices used to build resilience. This webinar shared successful collaborative techniques that worked to engage the diverse expertise of stakeholders, develop a shared language around commonly held values, and craft solutions-based science that respected local knowledge and the concerns of vulnerable communities. Results of the project have been used to develop training and resources for facilitators of collaborative processes and to guide the transfer of collaborative science projects to new audiences.

About the speaker:

Christine Feurt is the director of the Coastal Training Program at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve in Maine. Dr. Feurt integrates natural and social science into stakeholder processes using the Collaborative Learning approach in order to sustain ecosystem services and build resilient coastal communities.

Learn more about related project: Resilience Dialogues: Strategies for Conflict Management in Collaborative Science

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Coastal communities face tough decisions about how to manage flooding risks associated with rising seas and extreme rain events. Two project teams have developed an innovative planning tool that allows community leaders and residents to make sense of local climate projections and experiment with collaborative decision making in a safe environment.

The New England Climate Adaptation Project tested the use of role-play simulations, or “games,” to engage community members in climate adaptation planning. In a structured workshop setting, participants receive background information describing a fictional place - typically with a striking resemblance to their own - and must assume a fictional role in which they work collaboratively to prioritize actions that help the community manage climate risks. Following the framework developed in New England, the Georgetown Climate Adaptation Project produced a customized set of local climate projections and role playing materials for the coastal southeast. In this webinar, presenters discussed lessons learned from planning and leading simulation workshops in two different coastal regions.

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Maeve Snyder is the Coastal Training Program Coordinator at the North Inlet - Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. In this role, she supports science-based decision making through tools, skills, information, and partnerships. Maeve earned a M.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of South Carolina and a B.S. in Biology from Coastal Carolina University. Maeve has experience in ecological research, including a thesis on climate - driven range shifts of marine organisms. She has also worked in science communication and education throughout the coastal southeast.

Annie Cox is the Coastal Training Coordinator at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. She develops and organizes workshops and trainings for professionals working with and making decisions that affect our natural resources. Annie holds a masters in Ecological Design from the Conway School. She became interested in land use planning issues during her Peace Corps service teaching sustainable agriculture and aquaculture in rural Zambia, where she served for two years. Annie's undergraduate degree is in Biology from the University of Maine at Farmington.

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Long-term monitoring data can be a tremendous asset for coastal research and management, but processing and analyzing the data and extracting key findings can be challenging.

The National Estuarine Research Reserve System’s System-wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) has been collecting physical and biological data at estuaries across the country for many years. This webinar featured two projects that have been analyzing monitoring data from multiple sites to better understand trends in marsh surface elevation and vegetation in relation to sea levels. Project leads shared a few examples of their findings that can inform marsh resilience efforts, and provided tips for others considering SWMP synthesis projects.

The webinar wrapped with a discussion of opportunities and strategies for using SWMP data for future research and management applications.

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Kim Cressman from Grand Bay NERR provided an overview of her catalyst project: Is Marsh Surface Tracking Sea Level Change? Developing Tools and Visualizations for Sentinel Site Data, which developed data analysis and visualization tools for Surface Elevation Table (SET) data. SET measurements enable reserves to track changes in marsh surface height over time. The data are critical for monitoring marsh resilience in the face of rising seas, but SET data require specialized protocols for processing, quality checking and analyzing the data in a consistent way across sites.

David Burdick from the University of New Hampshire and Chris Peter from Great Bay NERR provided an overview of their project: Synthesizing Monitoring Data to Improve Coastal Wetland Management Across New England. This project analyzed Sentinel Site data from four New England reserves, which have individually been monitoring salt marsh vegetation and elevation changes since at least 2011. The team developed data packages linking vegetation change with surface elevation and other data, including output from an inundation tool. In addition to providing an initial summary of patterns, the project developed analysis protocols that can be utilized by other reserves and coastal managers nationwide.

The webinar also included comments and discussion from:

Chris Kinkade, NERRS National Research Coordinator,NOAA Office for Coastal Management

Dwayne Porter, Director, NERRS Centralized Data Management Office

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How do you modernize coastal land use planning in a way that balances responsible economic development, social interests, and the protection of natural resources? This is a common question for many coastal states including Oregon, where the management of the state's estuaries and surrounding shorelands is currently based on the economic and social drivers of the 1970s, when local land use plans were developed.

A diverse group of local stakeholders is collaborating to tackle this question for one Oregon estuary by: 1) compiling existing data to show current conditions and land uses within the estuary; 2) gathering stakeholder input and land use and planning recommendations from a diverse collection of interest groups; and 3) developing management options and detailed road maps for officials to use to update their land use plans.

This webinar highlighted the collaborative stakeholder engagement process driving the integrated assessment, and provided a snapshot of the products and recommendations developed through the process.

About the speakers:

Jenni Schmitt leads the planning and implementation of wetlands-related projects at the South Slough NERR in Oregon. As part of her work, Jenni has been coordinating collaborative projects with a community-based group of concerned citizens called the Partnership for Coastal Watersheds. Members of the group work collaboratively to develop locally-driven approaches to responsible development, and to help prepare for climate-related changes on Oregon's south coast. Learn more about project.

Jill Rolfe has worked for the Coos County Planning Department for 18 years and has been the director since 2012. She regularly coordinates research and updates to the County Comprehensive plan with local, state and federal agencies. She has been a member of the Partnership for Coastal Watersheds for six years and played a large advisory role for environmental and socio-economic aspects of multiple projects. Jill is also coordinating updates to several Estuary Management Plans.

Learn more about project

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Planning a collaborative research project can be challenging — it requires integrating researchers and the intended users of the science in a collaborative process that is unlike most traditional research approaches.

On October 16, 2019, the Science Collaborative hosted a panel discussion webinar highlighting the collective advice of three panelists who have helped design and manage collaborative science projects addressing a range of coastal management issues. This webinar aimed to help participants understand the key factors to consider in designing collaborative research projects. The panel discussion explored lessons learned about:

• Conceptualizing research to ensure it addresses natural resource management needs; and
• Designing a collaborative research process to ensure that it succeeds.

About the Speakers:

	Alison Watts, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, University of New Hampshire Alison is a civil engineer with a strong interest in water resource management and a history of successful collaborations involving municipal and watershed organizations. She has partnered with reserves on several projects over the years, the most recent project is developing and testing environmental DNA monitoring protocols.
	Jennifer West, Coastal Training Program Coordinator, Narragansett Bay NERR Jen develops and delivers training for coastal decision makers on topics ranging from climate change, wetland restoration, water resource management and facilitation techniques. She’s served as the collaborative lead for a number of projects, including a recent project involving wetland restoration pilot efforts at eight different reserves and a regional initiative to advance marsh resilience.
	Nikki Dix, PhD, Research Director, Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR Nikki establishes research priorities and oversees monitoring programs that address local and regional management needs at her reserve. She’s worked closely with a range of academic partners and natural resource managers to help guide collaborative research, including recent projects about living shorelines and oyster management.

Moderator:

Julia Wondolleck, PhD, NERRS Science Collaborative Julia’s research and teaching focuses on the collaborative dimension of marine, coastal and terrestrial ecosystem management. Julia supports Science Collaborative project teams through the development of training and tools to help teams plan and manage their collaborative processes.

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As the pace of climate change accelerates, there is also a need to also accelerate collective learning about how best to prepare and adapt.

Members of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) and partners, in part supported by the Science Collaborative, have been working on the frontlines to help communities enhance their resilience, for example by sharing lessons about how to communicate about climate change, producing critical scientific insights, and working with local and state partners to strategically advance action on the ground.

On September 9, 2019, the Science Collaborative hosted a panel webinar featuring discussion among four panelists that have been taking different approaches for helping communities anticipate and prepare for climate impacts. This webinar explored lessons learned about how best to accelerate learning and the transfer of ideas across the coastal management community.

About the Speakers:

	Lisa Auermuller, Assistant Manager and Coastal Training Program Coordinator, Jacques Cousteau NERR  In her role at the Reserve, Lisa's duties include assessing the needs of coastal decision makers and providing relevant and timely training opportunities. Lisa has been working with a variety of partners to develop tools and protocols to help communities understand their risks, plan for those risks and put adaptation measures into place. Learn more about Lisa and her Science Collaborative projects on risk communication and planning tools.
	Syverine Bentz, Coastal Training Program Coordinator, Kachemak Bay NERR  Syverine is interested in human and environmental drivers of landscape change, coastal and watershed processes, and ecosystem services. She currently works in the Coastal Training Program providing workshops, trainings and technical assistance. Syverine has led or co-led several innovative projects that help targeted groups better understand and plan for climate change impacts. Learn more about Syverine and her Science Collaborative projects on scenario planning and fisheries.
	Philip Orton, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology  Philip is a physical oceanographer that uses computational ocean modeling to study storm surges and sea level rise, urban flood adaptation, and water quality in estuaries and coastal environments. In partnership with the Hudson River NERR and others, Philip is studying the potential physical and ecological effects of building storm surge barriers to protect coastal infrastructure and human populations around New York City. Learn more about Philip and his Science Collaborative project.
	Stuart Siegel, PhD, Resilience Specialist, San Francisco Bay NERR  Stuart's interests are in how to guide the adaptive management process meaningfully and cost effectively. These efforts can include bringing “lessons learned” to bear, cost-effective assessment methodologies, systematic integrative synthesis, regional assessment strategies, and the incorporation of outcomes into effective governance structures. Learn more about Stuart and his Science Collaborative project.

Moderator:

Susi Moser, PhD, NERRS Science Collaborative  Susi's work focuses on adaptation to climate change, vulnerability, resilience, climate change communication, social change, decision support and the interaction between scientists, policy-makers and the public. She is a geographer by training, and has contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in multiple capacities. Over the past five years, Susi has partnered with different reserves to develop indicators of successful climate adaptation. Learn more about Susi and her Science Collaborative work.

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Hurricane Irma made landfall in southwest Florida within the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in September of 2017 as a Category 3 storm with winds in excess of 115 mph. For some areas within the reserve, the impact of the storm compounded the stress caused by decades of human development and changes to water flow patterns. Managers of the reserve want to better understand the synergistic effects of chronic stress from human modification or other drivers (e.g., sea level rise) and acute impacts from Hurricane Irma. One approach is to measure habitat structure and change in the time preceding and following the major storm event.

This webinar described the use of advanced satellite imagery to map the damage, death, and recovery of mangroves with a time series of images from 2010 to 2018. Dr. Matt McCarthy shared the methods used to map the landscape and evaluate change. Dr. Brita Jessen provided background for the study and discussed the management implications for the reserve and other coastal areas. Matt and Brita have been collaborating on a one year-year catalyst project that has relevance to coastal land managers interested in mapping habitat change.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Matthew McCarthy is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science. He specializes in remote sensing and large-scale coastal mapping with supercomputing technologies and advanced image processing techniques. He has applied remote sensing methods to study a variety of issues, including mangroves, seagrasses, coral reefs, coastal geomorphology, sea-level rise, aquaculture and public health.

Dr. Brita Jessen is the research manager at the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. She specializes in ecosystem ecology of coastal wetlands. As the research team lead, Dr. Jessen supports long-term monitoring programs related to water quality, sea level rise, habitat change, and wildlife, and works across departments to facilitate the translation of current research into management and policy.

Learn more about: Using Advanced Mapping to Measure Changes in Mangrove and Seagrass Habitat over Time

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Estuarine systems are areas of immense ecological importance and provide numerous social, economic, and environmental benefits, collectively known as ecosystem services. There has been an increasing desire to better incorporate ecosystem services into National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) management and stewardship, both from the network as a whole and at a local level. This webinar focused on a Science Collaborative-supported catalyst project that found streamlined ways to incorporate ecosystem services into NERRS decision making with applications to coastal management more broadly. Dr. Lydia Olander and Sara Mason at Duke University shared their approach to using Ecosystem Service Conceptual Models as a framework to think about ecosystem services and how they can be considered within the NERRS. In this webinar, they focused on work with the North Carolina and Rookery Bay NERRs to develop models of oyster reef and mangrove ecosystem services, efforts to apply these models to specific restoration sites at these reserves, and use of the models as a way to think about standardized monitoring of ecosystem services outcomes across the NERRS network.

Since 2016, Lydia and Sara have been working with the NERRS to think about how to incorporate ecosystem services more intentionally and systematically into coastal decision-making and management, resulting in publications (link 1, link 2) on the use of the ecosystem service conceptual model framework in the NERR context that laid the groundwork for the project.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Lydia Olander directs the Ecosystem Services Program at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. She leads the National Ecosystem Services Partnership, supporting efforts to integrate ecosystem services into decision making, and studies environmental markets and mitigation, including forestry and agricultural based climate mitigation; wetland, stream and endangered species mitigation; and water quality trading.

Sara Mason joined the Ecosystem Services Program at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions as a policy associate after graduating from Duke with a master’s degree in environmental management. Her work focuses on the interdisciplinary nature of biodiversity conservation and how that can be leveraged to engage the public and policy makers in conservation efforts. Prior to joining the Nicholas Institute, Sara worked in ecological field research and endangered animal rehabilitation.

Learn more about: Exploring Applications of Ecosystem Service Conceptual Models for Coastal Habitats

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The Kachemak Bay watershed, located on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, encompasses several terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems that provide a range of benefits and services that are not easily quantified. This webinar highlighted methods and findings from a Master’s project - advised by Dr. Julia Wondolleck and for which the client was Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (KBNERR) - that provides insights about ecosystem services valued in Kachemak Bay using a socio-cultural, place-based, ecosystem services framework. In addition to hearing from the students, their partners at KBNERR shared how they hope to apply their findings, and offered ideas for others interested in working with a student team in the future.

Master's projects are interdisciplinary capstone experiences that enable University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) master's students to develop solutions to pressing problems faced by real-world clients.

About the Speakers:

Ellie Flaherty has experience in policy and program analysis as well as environmental compliance support, and currently works as a Research Associate for the NERRS Science Collaborative. Her professional and academic background was valuable in understanding the Kachemak Bay area’s political landscape and identifying key stakeholders, user groups, and decision-makers.

Kathryn Kirkpatrick holds a particular interest in wetland restoration, fostered by various work experiences in ecological consulting, wetland banking, and independent research. This background was valuable in understanding and communicating the diverse biophysical ecosystem services present in the Kachemak Bay watershed.

Trey Snow has a background in economics and research, which provided valuable insights throughout the project’s development and in navigating existing studies and literature on ecosystem services. Following his bachelor’s in economics from Bucknell University in 2016, Trey spent time across the US from the Montana backcountry with the US Forest Service to an organic farm in New England.

Syverine Bentz is interested in landscape change, coastal processes, and ecosystem services. She grew up on Kachemak Bay and started as a science collaborative and discovery lab volunteer at KBNERR. She currently works in the Coastal Training Program providing workshops, trainings and technical assistance.

Dr. Julia Wondolleck is an associate professor at the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan and a core team member with the Science Collaborative. She is a collaboration scholar and practitioner, and advised the project team.

Learn more about: Leveraging a U-M Master's Project team