Tidal Creek Sentinel Habitat Database

The Ecological Research, Assessment and Prediction's Tidal Creeks: Sentinel Habitat Database was developed to support the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations' (NOAA) Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML) Oceans and Human Health Initiative (OHHI). The goal of the program is to provide the scientific information and framework for forecasting environmental and human health risks across estuarine habitats, watersheds, and regions which includes the testing of new technologies developed by other HML OHH groups. This includes a wide range of data from tidal creek systems which are being used as the sentinel habitat for assessing and predicting the impact of coastal development on estuarine systems. Sampling has occurred in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. Historical data from 1994, 1995, 2000 as well as recent data from 2005, 2006, and 2008 are included in the database. A wide range of parameters have been sampled in the estuarine tidal creek systems and their watersheds to obtain data on water quality (e.g., nutrients, pathogens, dissolved oxygen, salinity), sediment quality (e.g., characteristics, chemical contaminants), biological condition (e.g., macrobenthos, fish, organism health) , human exposure (e.g., pathogens), and watershed attributes (e.g., land cover, impervious cover, demographics). Each creek was sampled from its headwaters to its junction with a large open estuary. The creeks represented the range of land use types and human uses that occur in the Southeastern and Gulf regions, including forested, suburban, and urban watersheds. Results of these studies indicate that the amount and type of watershed development are linked to changes in creek environmental quality including increased fecal coliform levels, decreased sediment quality, changes in the kinds and abundances of biota, changes in the abundance of juvenile fish, and decreases in the abundance of shrimp that use these habitats as nurseries. These findings suggest that the shallow estuarine habitats that form the primary link with the land provide early warning of impairment and may be sentinels of ensuing harm from land-based activities. The levels of microbial and chemical contamination in these headwater environments are frequently an order of magnitude greater than that reported for deeper open water environments. Shallow or headwater tidal creeks are, in effect, the "first responders" to impacts of non-point source pollution runoff.

Tidal Creeks: Sentinel Habitat Database was developed to support the Ecosystem Research, Assessment and Prediction group at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations' (NOAA) Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML). HML is a partnership with NOAA, SC Department of Natural Resources, Medical University of South Carolina, College of Charleston, and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In addition, the SC Sea Grant Consortium and a number of the state National Estuarine Research Reserves are participating on the project. The goal of the project is to evaluating the performance of the environmental quality and public health indicators developed by other OHHI program elements in sentinel habitats (i.e., tidal creeks). Tidal creeks serve as the sentinel habitat for this project due to their direct association with the upland areas and the rapid coastal development that is occurring in these areas. Findings are being used to develop approaches for assessing and forecasting the ecological condition and public health status of coastal environments. The data provide valuable information on the environmental quality and human health and welfare of these systems that will be used to (1) relate estuarine habitat quality to land use and human use patterns at the regional scale, (2) refine the current tidal creek classification scheme, and (3) test and validate new technologies and methods such as the oyster microarrays (not included in data set) and virus measures being developed for the HML OHH program in comparison to more traditional measures of biological condition.

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NOAA Hollings Marine Laboratory Oceans and Human Health Initiative, Ecological Research, Assessment and Prediction

Water quality - basic (dissolved oxygen, salinity, temperature, specific conductivity, pH), nutrients (NH4, TDN, Si, TSS, TP, TDP, PO4, TN, NO2+NO3),chlorophyll a, phaeophytin, pathogens (fecal coliform, enterococci, coliphages) Sediment quality - chemical contaminants (PBDEs, PCBs, PAHs, metals, pesticides), characteristics (sand, silt, clay, mud, TOC) Tissue contaminants - oyster chemical contaminants (PBDEs, PCBs, PAHs, metals, pesticides) and lipids Biological quality - macrobenthic community, fish community Watershed attributes - land cover, impervious cover, human population, demographics

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Data Quality is managed by OHHI researchers. All data that are available for access have been vetted by OHHI reserachers are entered into OHHI databases when deemed to have passed internal QA procedures.

Data Quality is managed by OHHI researchers. All data that are available for access have been vetted by OHHI reserachers are entered into OHHI databases when deemed to have passed internal QA procedures.