SWMP (System Wide Management Program)
The JC NERR currently has five permanent System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) monitoring sites. They include four water-quality monitoring stations (Channel Markers 126 and 139 in Great Bay, Chestnut Neck Marina near the Garden State Parkway overpass, and Lower Bank Bridge) and one weather-monitoring station at Nacote Creek/Stockton College Marine Field Station. Additionally, nutrient-samples are collected and analyzed monthly at the aforementioned, and other, water-quality locations in the Great Bay-Little Egg Harbor estuary.
SWMP data are hosted and available for visualization and download via the CDMO website nerrsdata.org ( https://cdmo.baruch.sc.edu/ ).
In extension to core SWMP operations (water, weather, and nutrient monitoring), the JC NERR has established the Tuckerton Peninsula as its Wetlands and Water Levels (WLWL) monitoring site, with an array of vegetation plots, Sediment Elevation Tables (SETs), and a temporary National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tide gauge.
A number of long-term biological monitoring activities are SWMP-adjacent and strongly leveraged by SWMP. These include:
- Larval fish ingress monitoring – larval fish have been sampled weekly on a standard protocol beginning in 1994. SWMP water quality data has contributed to the interpretation of patterns in seasonal variability, interannual variability, phenological shifts, and the effects of power plant cooling water entrainment in an adjacent estuary.
- Similar to larval fish sampling, a twice-weekly wire-mesh trapping program since 1985 collects data on settling juvenile fish recruitment. Similarly, an estuary-wide juvenile and adult fish trawl survey continues since 1995 in every July and September. These programs have contributed to numerous peer-reviewed papers including as baseline sites for nearby urbanized estuaries.
- Acoustic telemetry has episodically been used to track fish movement into and through the estuary since 2006. Fish and horseshoe crab estuarine migrations monitored by the instruments in the Mullica River-Great Bay estuary and among estuaries are analyzed using SWMP water quality data.
- Sonar monitoring of zooplankton and fishes through Shooting Thorofare – a side looking multibeam sonar (BIOSonics DTX-Extreme with 3 transducers, 200, 400, and 1000 kHz) was established on an old concrete radar tower base in the main thorofare delivering water from the inlet to Great Bay. The project collected 18 GB of data, but severe bank erosion broke the power and internet connection to the tower base and high currents broke the transducer mounting brackets. Transducers were recovered undamaged but further erosion has prevented redeployment.
- Passive Acoustics Monitoring (PAM) – an Ocean Sonics iC3-Listen broad band audio frequency (1 hz-12 kHz) cabled hydrophone was deployed alongside the sonar system for nearly 2 years but had to be recovered for the same reason as the active sonar system. During the spring spawning season the initiation of spawning activity by soniferous fishes including Black Drum, Weakfish, Oyster toadfish, Silver Perch, and Cusk Eel was recorded for correlation with SWMP-collected water quality data.
- Seal haul-out – The number of seals hauling out on Crab Island near B126 SWMP water quality station was counted from the RUMFS cupola using a spotting scope starting in 2016. Variation in haul out is being examined as a function of water temperature, salinity, relative water level, air temperature, barometric pressure, precipitation, wind speed and wind direction using SWMP water quality and meteorological data.
- In 2023-2024 the JC NERR volunteered, along with a number of other reserves, for a pilot/proof of concept study, to conduct eDNA sampling for fish species-specific presence co-located and correlated with its SWMP water-quality and nutrient stations, with the intent to seek funding for future sampling and possible establishment as a core element of SWMP.
Development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Capability
In addition to long-term SWMP-adjacent monitoring, JC NERR Research, SWMP, and Stewardship staff also participated in and hosted meetings on the development of recommendations for a National benthic mapping strategy. The REMUS 100 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is a JC NERR asset now managed through the JCNERR’s Coastal Undersea Research Program (CURP) along with the newly acquired Autonomous Surface Vessel. JCNERR Research staff are contributing to development for mapping benthic habitats (as above) as well as fish with side scan sonar, and payload control systems for improving acoustic telemetry of fishes:
Major Research Projects
NJ Coastal Consortium for Resilient Communities (NJCCRC) – JC NERR staff are part of a multi-year project with the NJCCRC focused on the integration of climate change research, resiliency planning, and monitoring data to inform the proactive adaptation and management of estuarine resources. Science-based information and predictive models are needed to inform the management of estuarine resources, specifically how fast and in what ways changes are occurring. Models of changing ecosystem dynamics and range shifts in habitats and species will enable forecasts of future predicted changes. In turn, these data can lead to the informed, proactive management of coastal resources in anticipation of future environmental change.
Sandy Hook Submerged Mapping – JCNERR partnered with Washington College to map the submerged holdings of the Gateway National Recreation Area Sandy Hook Unit in response to a request from The National Park Service. Acoustic backscatter from multibeam sonar created a digital elevation model (bathymetry) while side scan sonar produced a map of surface features. The relationship between acoustic backscatter texture, sediment sorting profiles, and infauna, were used to create a classified map using supervised classification (machine learning) in the CMECS standard. The report is important as an inventory following over-wash of the GNRA by Superstorm Sandy and provides a baseline for assessing change from future storms.
Habitat Enhancement at Urban Estuarine Shorelines – Research staff participated in measuring the response of fish to the placement of oyster gabion and reef balls along an ecologically degraded urban shoreline along Tribeca, New York, within the Hudson River Park, and subsequently along the Gansevoort Peninsula several km to the north. The work is requested by NOAA as a trustee of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funds. Fish trapping in the Tribeca enhancement area and a control site is in the third year of a five-year program, while acoustic mapping and baited remote underwater video assessment is in the first of five years at Gansevoort and a control. The work will help evaluate the efficacy and design of future estuarine habitat enhancement projects. It continues efforts funded through various sources including the Hudson River Foundation.
Fish and invertebrate response to power plant cooling water shutdown – A Before-After Control Impact based on sampling between 2012 and 2020 assessed the effect of shutdown of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station on large adult (gillnetted) juvenile (trawled), and larval (plankton net) fishes while a Before-After Gradient design assessed the impact on infauna from grab samples. Work was requested as an invitational RFO by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Findings are being used to model and understand climate change effects on fish as well as understanding cumulative effects of urbanization in the estuary.
Coastal/estuarine connection of migrant fauna; effects of offshore wind development – Several developers have initiated offshore wind power projects off the coast of New Jersey. Research funding opportunities (RFOs) were by invitation. JC NERR research staff are leading efforts to understand effects on living resources, including the redistribution of fishes and migration patterns in response to power cable Electromagnetic Flux and recruitment due to reefing effects of the turbine monopole scour revetments, and trophic network effects from anticipated assemblage change. Work is in the 3rd year of 6 or more; no turbines have been installed yet.
Salt marsh ponds as reservoirs of Harmful Algal Blooms – Salt marsh tidal pools are an important feature of the Tuckerton/Sheepshead Meadow marsh platform and a potential reservoir of harmful algal species but have rarely been studied. The algal assemblage of marsh pools in areas managed by mosquito-control ditching, Open-Marsh Water Management, and un-altered marsh (2 each) were sampled monthly in Spring through Fall and all were dominated at least once during this period by HAB species. Whether or not they produce toxins during blooms in these pools is not yet known and is the focus of further study. Work was requested as an invited RFO by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection leads to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Effects of Sand Mining for Beach Nourishment on Living Resources – Beaches along the barrier island split communities of New Jersey are nourished from sand extracted from relict ebbtide deltaic deposits (submerged shoreface sand ridges). The effects of sand extraction on commercially and recreationally important fishes as well as horseshoe crabs is being studied through a combination of sonar, hydrographic sensors from a propelled AUV and gliders, trawling, and acoustic telemetry.
Wetlands Pore Water Methane Variation as an Effect of Salinity – Contributed to study methane inventory in peat soils across several NERRs led by the Smithsonian.
The Development of Techniques for Tropical Seaweed Cultivation and harvesting – The use of an AUV was piloted for the assessment of environmental conditions and growth of Euchemia algae on an estuarine farm consisting of suspended, seeded rope. Work was requested by partner Marine Biological Laboratory for prime Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
Reconfiguring Urban Shorelines – A workgroup of ecologists, architects, engineers, and designers met with regulators, community members, schools, Army, and special interest groups to rethink the design of urban shorelines to connect people with the environment and reconnect estuarine habitats through the incorporation of living elements as functional structures of the armoring.
eDNA- Assessing the value of environmental DNA (eDNA) at research reserve sites to provide end users with key training to support informed decisions regarding the implementation and use of eDNA monitoring in estuarine systems by assessing fish communities
Breaking the Surface: Collaborative Multidisciplinary Communication on Climate Change – Dance overlaid with film in natural marsh and water tank settings to convey the stress of sea level rise as well as the relief of finding solutions.
Fish Community Response to Diamond Alkali Superfund Site injury – A survey of fishes in the Passaic River Estuary compromised by the dumping of PAFS by Diamond Alkali is compared with that of the nearby Raritan River Estuary in a Before-After-Control-Impact design as regulators seek to remove contaminated sediments by dredging.
Estuarine Inventory – Comprehensive spatial and temporal trawl, gillnet, and beach seine survey of the Mullica Great Bay Estuary requested by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Architecture of Fine Scale Adaptation – Genetic survey of mummichog genotype differences among individual marsh pools as a response to local scale adaptation.
Nursery Area for Prohibited Sharks – Acoustic telemetry of juvenile sandbar sharks to quantify habitat use of the Mullica River- Great Bay and adjacent Barnegat Bay estuarine complex as a function of season, tide stage, and temperature. Work is funded by invited RFO to partner Monmouth University by The Nature Conservancy, but information is relevant to the definition of Essential Fish Habitat.
Genetic Divergence in Bluefish – JCNERR Research staff collaborated with Brazilian scientists to collect and analyze genetic material from Bluefish, and economically important fish. Findings indicate that there is virtually no exchange between North Atlantic and 2 southern stocks and that the stocks could be considered species. This effectively lowers the species’ population level and is important to management of harvest.
Beach Dune Resilience at Mid-Atlantic Sites – This project consists of an analysis of eight sites along the mid-Atlantic coast, ranging from New York to Delaware. All of the sites were restored post-Hurricane Sandy in an effort to increase suitable habitat for horseshoe crabs and migratory bird species. The project provided a tabulation of annual changes in shoreline position, topography, and sediment volume. Continuous vegetation and peat edge exposure lines are also surveyed for five of the Delaware Bay sites. The data collection and depiction of topography and volumetric change follows the protocol developed by Psuty et al. In addition, the net changes at the sites for the five-year period of data collection and the trends of the changes are presented in the context of the local coastal system evolution.