Research at the GTM Research Reserve

All inquiries related to Research at the GTMNERR should be directed to the Research Coordinator, Matt Kimball, at: Matthew.Kimball@dep.state.fl.us

Bio of Research Coordinator Matt Kimball

A major goal of the GTM Research Reserve is to promote research and monitoring that contributes to a fundamental understanding of estuarine systems and supports the adaptive management of same. To date, much of the research and monitoring effort at the Reserve has been accomplished by staff and/or by facilitating, or collaborating with outside investigators from universities, government agencies, and private institutions. The work has included a diverse array of studies (e.g., ranging from the development of molecular probes to hydrodynamic studies) that have significantly contributed to baseline information and insights on the structure and dynamics of the natural communities and processes within the GTM estuaries. These studies have provided an essential foundation from which informational gaps and issues have been identified in the formulation and focus of the current Management Plan, and through which future research and monitoring efforts will be guided. The GTMNERR Management Plan and Site Profile identify specific priority issues and information gaps that need to be addressed by the Reserve; examples of these include:

• Biological monitoring efforts should focus on multiple trophic levels (e.g., plankton, macroinvertebrates, fishes, and marine mammals) and habitats incorporating measures of both species/habitat biodiversity and condition. This multiple trophic level monitoring is not yet in place. It should complement expansion of the national SWMP effort to include assessments of habitat changes in biodiversity, population structure, and productivity in coastal communities related to anthropogenic and climate change impacts.
• There is a need for information concerning the status and trends in recreational and commercial fisheries within the Reserve’s boundary
• The GTM Reserve's submerged habitats are not well characterized. An up-to-date baseline inventory of habitats and species together with the development of protocols for conducting change analyses and predictive modeling is needed.
• Storms are often the cause of major coastal shoreline changes, exacerbating the impact of anthropogenic influences, such as sea level rise, inlet management, beach renourishment and channel dredging on natural sediment dynamics. Sediment transport modeling is necessary to quantify these processes and to predict the outcome of anthropogenic and natural events.

Research and monitoring initiatives that inform adaptive management decision-making is a fundamental charge of the GTM Research Reserve program. But equally important is an integration with educational and resource management to interpret the results of research and monitoring for coastal decision makers and stakeholders responsible for implementing restoration/conservation planning.

Published Reserve Research

Recent Published Research:
Mangroves and Climate Change Study - To read this article click here
Stormy Weather and Water Quality - To read this article click here
Green Mussels Research - To read this article click here

The second special NERRS issue of the Journal of Coastal Research includes articles based on studies performed within the GTMNERR and a third draws upon data generated by the GTMNERR SWMP initiative.

• Circulation and Flushing in the Lagoonal System of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR), Florida by Y. Peter Sheng, Bilge Tutak, Justin R. Davis, and Vladimir Paramygin
• Water Quality Changes in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, Florida, Associated with Four Tropical Storms by Nicole G. Dix, Edward J. Phlips, and Richard A. Gleeson

GTM Research Reserve’s System-wide Monitoring Program

(SWMP – pronounced "swamp" )

The National Estuarine Research Reserve System-wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) tracks short-term variability and long-term changes in estuarine waters to understand how human activities and natural events can change ecosystems. It provides valuable long-term data on water quality and weather at frequent time intervals.

The reserve system currently measures physical and chemical water quality indicators, nutrients and the impacts of weather on estuaries. One aspect of SWMP is the measurement of basic physical water quality parameters. Each of the twenty-six reserves in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System uses special dataloggers called datasondes with an array of sensors that record temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, and water depth every 30 minutes at four separate sites. These parameters are important indicators of habitat quality for numerous estuarine species and to determine health criteria and human uses. To learn more about these parameters check out http://nerrs.noaa.gov/Monitoring/Water.html. The four water quality monitoring sites at GTM NERR are located as follows: Pine Island, San Sebastian River, Fort Matanzas and Pellicer Creek.

More information about the National Estuarine Research Reserve System-wide Monitoring Program can be found at the Centralized Data Management Office (CDMO). Data from the GTM Reserve and all the other Reserve sites can also be accessed from the CDMO once the data has been checked for errors and submitted.

The GTM Reserve’s Weather Station

No, that’s not a UFO that has landed in the marsh. That’s the GTM NERR weather station, the newest addition to the System-Wide Monitoring Program. The 10-foot tall aluminum tower serves as a backbone for the attachment of environmental sensors that record air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, and photosynthetically active radiation (the solar energy that plants use in the process of photosynthesis). An additional instrument devised to measure rainfall levels is situated approximately 2 feet away from the tower. Both the tower and rain gauge are mounted to a 5-foot high wooden platform located at the water’s edge within the Princess Place Preserve near the mouth of Pellicer Creek. The location of the weather station is optimal in the sense that it is within the aquatic system that we are striving to understand (in the salt marsh with a distant tree line verses a nearby upland area) and within close proximity to our Pellicer Creek water quality monitoring station.

The addition of the weather station to the System-Wide Monitoring Program is a crucial component in clarifying the natural processes in our estuaries. Once incorporated into our water quality data, we will learn how these meteorological parameters affect our waters. Like the water quality instruments, which record at the top and bottom of each hour throughout the year, the majority of the meteorological sensors record data every 15 minutes throughout the year. Some parameters, such as rainfall and photosynthetically active radiation, are totaled on a daily basis. GTM NERR researchers visit the weather station to download the meteorological data to a palm pilot and clean the sensors to ensure the validity of the data. As with the water quality data, meteorological data will be available (after our annual submission) on the web for use by interested locals and scientists around the world.

All inquiries related Research at the GTMNERR should be directed to the Research Coordinator, Matt Kimball, at: Matthew.Kimball@dep.state.fl.us