Advanced Tools/Technology Development

USGS is working with partners to understand how the federally protected Florida manatee ( Trichechus manatus latirostris) population changes over time and responds to threats.

WARC first implemented geographic information systems (GIS) in 1980 to help monitor the nature and extent of wetland habitat changes. The center continues to use GIS, remote sensing, and other computer based technologies to address a wide range of natural resource related issues.

The Coastwise Reference Monitoring System was designed to monitor the effectiveness of restoration actions at individual sites, as well as across the entire Louisiana coast.

As the first federally mandated restoration program, Louisiana enacted the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) to address Louisiana’s land loss crisis.

"BearTrak" is an app that provides a central repository for Louisiana black bear tracking data, allowing managers to access information more quickly and reliably. USGS science was used in the decision to delist the species from the Endangered Species Act in 2016. Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries continues to monitor the Louisiana black bear population.

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...

USGS scientists are using a spatially-explicit Bayesian network model to predict the difference between energetic value and energetic demand for stopover habitats for migrating landbirds.

The USGS is collaborating with researchers from other agencies, academia, and industry to predict coastal impacts from hurricanes. The results from this study will better inform coastal morphological change models, which will lead to improved hurricane impact projections.

Flow cytometry is a technique for rapidly analyzing large numbers of animal cells using light-scattering, fluorescence, and absorbance measurements.

USGS scientists have developed and optimized python-specific eDNA markers to detect Burmese pythons from water samples taken from the Florida Everglades. This development may aid in the identification of possible waterways used as corridors for northward expansion of this invasive species.

With the support of the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, USGS researchers will develop and optimize a CRISPR biosensor to detect C. galea eDNA in the field. The development of this tool could assist coral restoration managers and stakeholders to more effectively inform decisions on coral outplant site selection, based on coral predator presence.

The Joint Ecosystem Modeling team will run a suite of 13 ecological models to provide insight into alternative restoration plans' ecological performance, unintended ecological conditions, and potential conflicts with other Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) goals.