Thrust 1: Assessing Biological and Ecosystem Impacts

Goals

  • Create an Integrated Bay Observatory to collect and disseminate continuous real-time, in situ ecological and environmental data for Narragansett Bay and key riverine watersheds, providing high-resolution assessments of when and where different functional groups are present as a function of the environmental conditions.
  • Identify linkages between physical and biogeochemical factors, anthropogenic stressors, and the presence and co-occurrence of species and metabolisms, including the land-activity that impacts the Narragansett Bay ecosystem.

Expected Outcomes

  • Create a networked observatory in Narragansett Bay with live-stream data which is publicly available for real-time data analysis, as well as for hind- and forecasting
  • Develop a much better understanding of the relationship of the planktonic species in Narragansett Bay with environmental dynamics to resolve unanswered questions, such as:
    • What changes in the ecosystem result in toxic algal blooms
    • What prevents bivalve recruitment into upper Narragansett Bay?
    • What are the ecosystem impacts of extended hypoxia?
  • Provide ecosystem modelers with high-resolution data, needed for better understanding monitoring and management of the bay