Management and Restoration

USGS researchers will will survey elevation and vegetation in wetlands and vegetated dunes on Horn, Petite Bois, and Ship Islands; Correct the best available lidar-based digital elevation model; estimate inundation for the Gulf Islands National Seashore under various water levels and relative sea-level rise scenarios; and quantify and predict potential marsh migration for the Gulf Islands National...

USGS researchers are conducting research on St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge and throughout coastal habitat in Northwest Florida to inform future management decisions in the Refuge and contribute to the growing knowledge of the ecology of gopher tortoises using coastal habitats.

Through a collaborative effort with other federal agencies and academic and research institutions, USGS is working to fill data gaps, determine baseline conditions, and characterize key community conditions at mesophotic and deep benthic sites impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Through a collaborative effort with other federal agencies and academic and research institutions, the USGS is working to inform and enhance the protection and management of coral communities in mesophotic and deep benthic areas of the Gulf.

Mangrove forests have migrated inland over the past few decades at many locations along the northern Gulf coast. This expansion has been attributed to factors associated with climate change, such as increased salinity resulting from sea-level rise and longer intervals between winter freezes, which can kill cold-intolerant mangrove species.

WARC researchers are providing support to Louisiana Monitoring and Adaptive Management activities.

The scientists at the Wetland and Aquatic Science Center (WARC) have provided coastal restoration project managers and decision makers with GIS planning, database and custom application capacity since 1992. The scope and complexity of this support has increased over the years and has resulted in the development of a comprehensive geospatial and advanced application teams that provide decision...

The federally threatened piping plover relies on sand-beach habitat year-round for nesting, foraging, and roosting, habitat that is particularly vulnerable to loss and degradation from coastal development, recreation activities, erosion, and sea-level rise.

Deep-sea coral habitats are complex ecosystems at the landscape and local level. While these systems may harbor substantial levels of biodiversity, they remain inadequately investigated.

USGS researchers are collecting information about lower trophic levels in Barataria Estuary to develop a long-term monitoring plan.

USGS is partnering with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to digitize 20 years of historic sea turtle relocation trawling reports from over 50 sites across nine states.

USGS researchers are examining germination of Purple Loosestrife to determine if the seed bank can reestablish this invasive species in the Mississippi Delta.