Gulf of Mexico Alliance
ECOSYSTEM INTEGRATION AND ASSESSMENT PRIORITY ISSUE TEAM
Meeting Notes
December 12, 2013
EIA Action Item 1: Gulf of Mexico Master Mapping Plan update –Jennifer Wozencraft (USACE)
Leveraging national activities and working with the Interagency Working Group on Ocean and Coastal
Mapping. Some progress was made with the GoM Master Mapping Plan and GDAPT tool.
National Ocean and Coastal Mapping Strategic Action Plan:
http://www.iocm.noaa.gov/reports/OCM_Nat_Strat_Action_Plan_Version_1.pdf
Integrate GoM MMP with the National Strategy
Pushing idea of working with shapefiles and using SeaSketch…
Mapping of shoreline planned for 2015; getting organized to leverage resources.
EIA Action Item 2: Data Access and Acquisition update – William Nichols and John Wood (HRI)
GOMAPortal
Continuing maintenance:
 Adding and updating datasets: adding mainly data products created in house to distribute; in the
past added some HCRT-created data sets, but nothing from the other PITs. If you know of any
GOMA dataset that needs to be included in GOMAportal, please, contact William
(William.Nichols@tamucc.edu).
 Identifying and removing datasets housed on other repositories due to updated geoportals by
the federal government.
Future activities:
 Migrate to new server: increased storage that will allow adding lidar data.
 Update to latest version of GeoPortal Server.
 Add Federated Search that will allow searching other geoportals through GOMAportal.
Gulf Ecological Management Sites (GEMS) and Restoration Portal
 Continuing to gather restoration and conservation data sets; such as shoreline protection,
shoreline stabilization, oyster reef restoration, …
o Thousands of points, lines, polygons
o Welcome more data sets, additional funding opportunities (please contact
John.Wood@tamucc.edu)
 Concentration/effort is on documenting ‘sites’ and ‘project sites’ to show where things have
been done.
 Seeking additional data sources
 Seeking additional funding sources
Gulf Data Atlas Update – Kate Rose (NOAA)
New datasets in 2013:
• Commercial longline bycatch- reef fish hotspot analysis: red snapper, red grouper, vermillion
snapper
• NWI Wetlands
• Invasive species: lionfish, tiger shrimp
• Recreational facilities: marinas, boat launches and dive shops
• Watershed boundaries: U.S. and Mexico
• Hurricane frequency and intensity
• U.S. federal protected areas
Updates: fisheries closures , marine jurisdictions
In progress: king mackerel diet – Hg, turtle nesting sites, ocean color (chl A)
MS-AL Sea Grant Survey: Questionnaire is completed, submitted to USM Institutional Review Board for
approval, will be released January 2014. Need to decide how to share the results.
Moving GAME records into the EcoWatch Catalog:
• Successful test of xml transform on sample records
• FWRI editing identified “problem” fields in some records prior to transform of full database
• Add Marine Ecosystems of the World tags to transformed records
The GAME records are transformed into FGDC compliant; a new transform will be used to migrate them
to ISO.
EIA Action Item 3: Living Marine Resources update – Dave Reed (FIO)
Since June:
• Launched the beta version of the GAME web portal.
– 2500+ project records
– 1,400,000+ taxa records
– Query by
• User defined geographic extent
• Year
• Text
• Category
• Taxa
• Organization
***COMING SOON***
• Author/Researcher
• Transferred data to EcoWatch in October
What’s next?
• Add additional taxa databases (Florida Museum of Natural History?, Gulf Coast Research Lab?,
MOTE?)
• Establish data connection link between affiliated webpages (GoMexSI, EOL)
• Refine current data holdings for web distribution: cleaning up footprints of over 4000 records
already in the Catalog
•
And of course….keep adding records.
EIA Action Item 4: Emergent Wetlands Status and Trends in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: 1950-2010
update – Kate Spear (USGS)
• Available at http://gom.usgs.gov
• Introduction, Methods, Study Area, comprehensive Literature Survey on Gulf of Mexico
emergent wetlands
• Statewide Summaries for Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, plus vignettes for Mobile Bay,
Mississippi Sound, Tampa Bay, and Florida Panhandle
• Texas chapters – Harte will complete in January 2014
• Louisiana chapters – Kate will complete draft this month; Mark Hester (UL) will complete state
writer sections in Jan-Feb 2014
• Next: Mangrove Status & Trends
EIA Action Item 5: Ecosystem Services Valuation update – Cristina Carollo (HRI)
• Sea Grant project: survey testing completed; survey in the field starting at the end of this week;
• “Operationalizing Ecosystem Services for Restoration” framework completed and released
(available at:
http://www.harteresearchinstitute.org/images/research/socioeconomics/ESFramework.pdf)
• Submitted two proposals in response to the EPA RFIP; one in collaboration with Larry Hadley
(USGS);
• Gulf of Mexico offshore ecosystem services workshops held in Houston, TX, at the end of
September and in Tampa, FL, at the end of November. This project is in collaboration with
Exxon. Stakeholders from different industries (commercial and recreational fisheries, diving…),
federal government (NOAA and BOEM), and NGOs (Ocean Conservancy and Conservation
International) were invited to discuss the importance of offshore ecosystem services in the Gulf
of Mexico;
• PIT collaborations with Environmental Education PIT: translation of ecosystem services videos
(“Ecosystem services of the ocean” created by Lauren Hutchison [HRI] in Spanish and the
Humboldt Institute’s “Servicios ecosistémicos, nuestra conexión vital con la biodiversidad” in
English and Vietnamese).
GOMA AMT Funding Update and other funding sources
EIA PIT proposals submitted:
• Living shoreline site suitability modeling for Mobile Bay: A GIS & remote sensing‐based approach
– Boyd and Jones
• Gulf of Mexico Alliance Environmental Restoration and Conservation Portal – Gibeaut et al.
• Data entry and data management tools to support effective implementation of the Coastal and
Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) in the Gulf of Mexico – Goodin et al.
• Assessment of changing ecosystem services provided by Louisiana barrier island habitats –
Yoskowitz et al.
The AMT funded “Living shoreline site suitability modeling for Mobile Bay: A GIS & remote sensing‐
based approach” by Boyd and Jones.
“The living shoreline site suitability model and interactive mapping interface will “provide
ecosystem decision‐support tools to address priority issues within the Gulf by acquiring new and existing
data sets” as well as promote living marine resources, each are long term goal of the Ecosystem
Integration and Assessment priority issue team (PIT). The model will be used by resource managers and
Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) partners to make improved restoration decisions for shoreline erosion
protection in Mobile Bay; the model can later be modified for other areas of the Gulf of Mexico. This
suitability model has direct application to the actions of concern of other PIT’s such as Habitat
Conservation and Restoration (address issues impeding habitat conservation and restoration),
Environmental Education (promote public awareness and better stewardship of shoreline ecosystems),
and Coastal Community Resilience (assessing the natural and built environments to better manage our
shorelines and support ecosystem‐friendly alternatives to shore protection.”
The AMT also funded the following projects:
• Nutrients and Nutrient Impacts – NUT Datasets into GCOOS Data Portal
• Coastal Community Resilience – Small Grants for Resilience Index Gaps
• Habitat Conservation and Restoration – Living Shorelines Technical Bulletin
• Water Quality – Trophic Transfer of Mercury Along Salinity Gradients in Estuaries
• Environmental Education - Connecting Scientists to Citizens Regarding Sea Level Rise
2014 PIT Meetings
The date has not been set yet. Dates will be discussed at the next ACT call (December 18). I will send out
an email as soon as we have a date.
GOMA travel support for GOMRI to go to Steve Jones – Geological Survey of Alabama
Attendees’ list
Becky Allee (Federal Co-facilitator) – NOAA CSC
Rene’ Baumstark – FWC/FWRI
Chris Boyd - MSU
Cristina Carollo (EIA PIT Coordinator) – HRI
Brad Ennis – FWC/FWRI
Larry Handley – USGS
Sarah Jonston – AL DCNR
Chris Kelble - NOAA
Syed Khalil – LA CPRA
Bill Kiene - NOAA
Mark Mueller – Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council
William Nichols - HRI
Dave Reed – FIO
Kate Rose – NOAA NCDDC
Tracie Sempier - GOMA
Kate Spear - USGS
Jennifer Wozencraft – USACE
John Wood - HRI
David Yoskowitz – HRI