System Wide Monitoring Program

With over 25 sites that reflect the diverse coastal biogeographic regions of the Nation, the National Estuarine Research Reserve System is ideally suited for a long-term trend-monitoring program to address estuarine management issues. The System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) was created to identify and track short-term variability and long-term changes in representative estuarine ecosystems and coastal watersheds.

SWMP is a phased monitoring approach that focuses on three different ecosystem characteristics:

Abiotic Factors, including atmospheric, water quality (nutrients, contaminants, etc.) and physical parameters (salinity, tidal range, groundwater, freshwater inflow, bathymetry, etc.)
Biological Monitoring, including biodiversity habitat and population characteristics
Watershed and Land Use Classifications, including historic changes in spatial coverage and assessments of consumptive and non-consumptive uses

The Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve - MD is working with government agencies in the Bay region to integrate their SWMP into the bay-wide water quality monitoring effort to assess shallow water habitats. This integrated effort will provide managers with information to help characterize water and habitat conditions and identify specific problem areas throughout the Bay's tidal waters. Data collected through this effort is available at www.eyesonthebay.net usually within one week of collection.

Additional information on the program can be found at these web sites:
http://nerrs.noaa.gov/Monitoring
http://cdmo.baruch.sc.edu
http://www.ocrm.nos.noaa.gov/pdf/nerrswmp96-98.pdf

More Information

Calendar of EventsView all

Clams - Can You Dig It?08/24/2019 @ 10:00 am-12:00 pmClams are environmental heroes and gastronomical treats! Dig into the mud of Otter Point Creek to harvest clams, use those clams in a demonstration of their superhero filtering capacity, and then dig into the finer points of steaming and consuming clams!
Tails and Tots08/25/2019 @ 2:00 pm-3:00 pmStory time with a natural twist! Listen to stories, learn new songs, and move like the animals.
Build-a-Boat Float08/31/2019 @ 1:30 pm-3:00 pmSearch the forest and shoreline for the perfect materials to design and construct a rustic natural boat. How well will your boat float? Test it out along the shoreline of Otter Point Creek!
Sunday Trail Running09/01/2019 @ 10:00 am-11:00 amLog your miles while enjoying some beautiful scenery and some fellow nature enthusiasts! All skill levels/paces welcome. The course is an out and back, single track, approx. 2 miles long (but you can run it more than once if you choose).
Wild Rice Canoe09/07/2019 @ 1:00 pm-3:30 pmWander through the waving stalks of wild rice within the marsh. Taste what was once a staple of Native American diets and remains an important food source for migrating birds.