A major focus of
GCAP is on combining resources to tackle coastal-management issues of
importance to both federal and state partners.
One such issue that GCAP partners have begun to work on is:
Investigating the extent to which land-based sources of pollutants and other materials
are transported through major river systems to offshore shelf environments and the
potential effects (positive or negative) that these materials may have on biological
resources along the way.
This issue is of importance in fulfilling both state and federal coastal-management
needs and represents a topic that can be addressed by results of ongoing projects.
As a result of collective sampling activities, GCAP partners have (or soon will
have) synoptic data on condition of benthic and demersal fauna, pollutant levels,
and other environmental conditions along a series of onshore-offshore transects
in three major systems: Sapelo, Doboy, and Altamaha Sounds.
By focusing initial efforts on these three systems, it will be possible to examine
spatial patterns from the upper reaches of estuaries, through the mouths of these
three sounds, and out to inner-shelf depths of the Grays Reef National Marine Sanctuary
(GRNMS).
As part of the ongoing
NOAA benthic survey of GRNMS, samples of benthic macroinfaunal
communities, chemical contaminants in sediments and biota, and other general habitat
conditions were collected (spring 2000-01) at sites within the sanctuary and in
nearby inner-shelf waters along three cross-shelf transects. An important
finding from the first year of this research was the detection of trace concentrations
of pesticides, PCBs
and PAHs in
both sediments and biota within the boundaries of the sanctuary.
The
presence of these contaminants, though not at concentrations likely to cause significant
bioeffects, demonstrates that chemical substances originating from human activities
are capable of reaching the offshore sanctuary environment, either by air or underwater
cross-shelf transport from land. The inner shelf of the SAB is occupied by waters known to undergo
episodic cross-shelf transport.
Under the GCAP initiative, we will be focusing on developing a more comprehensive
understanding of the onshore-offshore distribution of these materials and their
potential bioeffects, and of the processes driving the observed patterns.
At least two significant outcomes are expected:
- Providing information to the
Georgia DNR to help with efforts to develop appropriate management strategies for
maintaining healthy environmental conditions and protecting living resources in
coastal habitats of Georgia; and
- Using this initiative as a pilot study of the ecology of the SAB and a demonstration of how activities on
land may have a significant influence on the quality of this offshore environment.
Representatives of the Gerogia DNR expressed at an initial GCAP planning meeting how the
first of these outcomes would be of tremendous value to their agency.
Moreover, the second outcome should be of direct value to NOAA in view of its recent
interests in granting MPA
status to key offshore sites throughout the
SAB.