Coastal Habitats in Puget Sound Active
A Pacific Northwest icon, Puget Sound is the second-largest estuary in the United States. Its unique geology, climate, and nutrient-rich waters produce and sustain biologically productive coastal habitats. These same natural characteristics also contribute to a high quality of life that has led to growth in human population and urbanization. This growth has played a role in degrading the Sound, including declines in fish and wildlife populations, water-quality issues, and changes in coastal habitats. Natural resource managers look to the USGS as a critical science resource needed to solve problems in this important ecosystem.
The deterioration of the Puget Sound nearshore is of special concern — the area extending from the top of shoreline bluffs to a depth offshore where sunlight does not reach the bottom, and upstream in estuaries to the head of tidal influence. It includes bluffs, beaches, mudflats, kelp and eelgrass beds, salt marshes, gravel spits, and estuaries. Because the nearshore is one of the most productive parts of the Sound, improved understanding of it is vital to restoration and preservation of the entire Sound.
To develop a restoration program, Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments, non-governmental organizations, universities, and private industry joined in 2001 to create the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project (PSNERP). In December 2005, protection and restoration of Puget Sound was expanded in scope with the creation of the Puget Sound Partnership. As a task force within the Governor of Washington's Puget Sound Initiative, the Puget Sound Partnership's goal is to develop recommendations to restore the Sound by 2020.
The overall scientific goal of the CHIPS project is to provide scientific support for ecosystem recovery activities in Puget Sound. Through its diverse studies, the CHIPS project strives to demonstrate a structure and process for conducting interdisciplinary ecosystem science.
See links below for more information about USGS work in Puget Sound.
Below are data releases associated with this project.
Below are publications (USGS products, journal articles, etc.) associated with this project. See the “Data and Tools” tab for a list of Data Releases.
Mount Baker lahars and debris flows, ancient, modern, and future
Guidelines for monitoring and adaptively managing restoration of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss) on the Elwha River
Conservation and Ecology of Marine Forage Fishes--Proceedings of a Research Symposium, September 2012
U.S. Geological Survey ecosystems science strategy—Advancing discovery and application through collaboration
River turbidity and sediment loads during dam removal
Dam decommissioning has become an important means for removing unsafe or obsolete dams and for restoring natural fluvial processes, including discharge regimes, sediment transport, and ecosystem connectivity [Doyle et al., 2003]. The largest dam-removal project in history began in September 2011 on the Elwha River of Washington State (Figure 1a). The project, which aims to restore the river ecosys
Analysis of streamflow-gaging network for monitoring stormwater in small streams in the Puget Sound Basin, Washington
The U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystem Science Strategy, 2012-2022 - Advancing discovery and application through collaboration
Western Fisheries Research Center--Forage fish studies in Puget Sound
The influence of wave energy and sediment transport on seagrass distribution
Arrival and expansion of the invasive foraminifera Trochammina hadai Uchio in Padilla Bay, Washington
Shallow stratigraphy of the Skagit River Delta, Washington, derived from sediment cores
Land-use planning for nearshore ecosystem services—the Puget Sound Ecosystem Portfolio Model
Below are data releases associated with this project.
Below are news stories associated with this project.
A Pacific Northwest icon, Puget Sound is the second-largest estuary in the United States. Its unique geology, climate, and nutrient-rich waters produce and sustain biologically productive coastal habitats. These same natural characteristics also contribute to a high quality of life that has led to growth in human population and urbanization. This growth has played a role in degrading the Sound, including declines in fish and wildlife populations, water-quality issues, and changes in coastal habitats. Natural resource managers look to the USGS as a critical science resource needed to solve problems in this important ecosystem.
The deterioration of the Puget Sound nearshore is of special concern — the area extending from the top of shoreline bluffs to a depth offshore where sunlight does not reach the bottom, and upstream in estuaries to the head of tidal influence. It includes bluffs, beaches, mudflats, kelp and eelgrass beds, salt marshes, gravel spits, and estuaries. Because the nearshore is one of the most productive parts of the Sound, improved understanding of it is vital to restoration and preservation of the entire Sound.
To develop a restoration program, Federal, State, Tribal, and local governments, non-governmental organizations, universities, and private industry joined in 2001 to create the Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project (PSNERP). In December 2005, protection and restoration of Puget Sound was expanded in scope with the creation of the Puget Sound Partnership. As a task force within the Governor of Washington's Puget Sound Initiative, the Puget Sound Partnership's goal is to develop recommendations to restore the Sound by 2020.
The overall scientific goal of the CHIPS project is to provide scientific support for ecosystem recovery activities in Puget Sound. Through its diverse studies, the CHIPS project strives to demonstrate a structure and process for conducting interdisciplinary ecosystem science.
See links below for more information about USGS work in Puget Sound.
Below are data releases associated with this project.
Below are publications (USGS products, journal articles, etc.) associated with this project. See the “Data and Tools” tab for a list of Data Releases.
Mount Baker lahars and debris flows, ancient, modern, and future
Guidelines for monitoring and adaptively managing restoration of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss) on the Elwha River
Conservation and Ecology of Marine Forage Fishes--Proceedings of a Research Symposium, September 2012
U.S. Geological Survey ecosystems science strategy—Advancing discovery and application through collaboration
River turbidity and sediment loads during dam removal
Dam decommissioning has become an important means for removing unsafe or obsolete dams and for restoring natural fluvial processes, including discharge regimes, sediment transport, and ecosystem connectivity [Doyle et al., 2003]. The largest dam-removal project in history began in September 2011 on the Elwha River of Washington State (Figure 1a). The project, which aims to restore the river ecosys
Analysis of streamflow-gaging network for monitoring stormwater in small streams in the Puget Sound Basin, Washington
The U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystem Science Strategy, 2012-2022 - Advancing discovery and application through collaboration
Western Fisheries Research Center--Forage fish studies in Puget Sound
The influence of wave energy and sediment transport on seagrass distribution
Arrival and expansion of the invasive foraminifera Trochammina hadai Uchio in Padilla Bay, Washington
Shallow stratigraphy of the Skagit River Delta, Washington, derived from sediment cores
Land-use planning for nearshore ecosystem services—the Puget Sound Ecosystem Portfolio Model
Below are data releases associated with this project.
Below are news stories associated with this project.