Vulnerability Assessment of Coastal Bend Bays
Freshwater is a scarce resource in the Texas Coastal Bend, and with an ever-increasing demand on freshwater resources, the need for a visualization tool assessing the vulnerability of nekton (fish, shrimp, and crab) in Corpus Christi and Nueces Bays to rising salinities and identifying the occurrence and distribution of these species at various life stages across the bays is essential. The purpose of this project is to identify and map areas of ecological importance and/or vulnerability in the Corpus Christi Bay region based on seasonal salinity modeling, species abundance and distribution (larval through adult), and species-specific salinity tolerances.
Many nekton occurring in coastal waters share a common estuarine-dependent life history strategy characterized by near-shore spawning in the Gulf of Mexico with larvae migrating through tidal inlets into shallow estuarine nursery habitats. Access to high quality habitat and spawning grounds via tidal inlets is essential for reproduction, growth, survival, and maintenance of these populations. Heat maps detailing these ecologically important and vulnerable areas can serve as valuable visualization tools during the consideration of future development to help reduce environmental impacts.
Heat maps, which are graphical representations of data using a matrix of colors, are useful for visualizing attributes of ecosystems. This approach has been used successfully to create a heat map of ecosystem services provided by habitats within the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program area so that valued ecosystem components could be identified for ecosystem-based management approaches. This project will create new tool and updated charts, leveraging the original map because it already has the habitats and values identified within the region. The following new data would be added as GIS (geographic information system) layers:
- Salinity model output (for example, wet and dry years obtained from the Texas Water Development Board and used in environmental flow recommendation reports);
- Larval fish abundance and distributions obtained from Scott Holt’s work at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute;
- Small adult and juvenile fish and invertebrate abundance and distributions obtained from long-term, fisheries-independent bag seine surveys conducted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; and
- Additional larval and juvenile fish and invertebrate data as it becomes available.
Available information on species-specific salinity tolerances will be integrated. Though, additional factors such as impingement of biological resources in the intake and degradation of water or sediment quality conditions near the outfall may still have negative effects on species with a high tolerance to increasing salinity conditions.
Final report now available in Downloads section.
Maji safi ni rasilimali ndogo katika Texas Coastal Bend, na kwa mahitaji ya maji baridi yanayoongezeka, haja ya chombo cha kuona kinachochunguza udhaifu wa necton (samaki, shrimp, na krab) katika Corpus Christi na Nueces Bays kwa kuongezeka kwa chumvi na kutambua kutokea na usambazaji wa spishi hizi katika hatua mbalimbali za maisha katika bay. Lengo la mradi huu ni kutambua na ramani maeneo ya kiikolojia umuhimu na au udhaifu katika eneo la Corpus Christi Bay kulingana na msimu salinity modeling, aina wingi na usambazaji (larva kupitia watu wazima), na aina maalum salinity tolerance. Nektoni nyingi zinazopatikana katika maji ya pwani zinashiriki mkakati wa kawaida wa historia ya maisha ya estuari inayohusiana na kuota karibu na pwani katika Ghuba ya Mexico na mabuu ya kuhamia kupitia vijito vya mawimbi ya maji katika makazi ya watoto ya estuari. Upatikanaji wa mazingira ya hali ya juu na maeneo ya kuzaa kupitia vijito vya mawimbi ni muhimu kwa uzazi, ukuaji, kuishi, na matengenezo ya idadi hii. Ramani za joto zinazotoa maelezo ya maeneo haya muhimu ya ikolojia na dhaifu zinaweza kutumika kama zana muhimu za kuona wakati wa kuzingatia maendeleo ya baadaye kusaidia kupunguza athari za mazingira. Ramani za joto, ambazo ni uwakilishi wa picha ya data kwa kutumia matrix ya rangi, ni muhimu kwa ajili ya kuona sifa za mazingira. Njia hii imetumika kwa mafanikio kuunda ramani ya joto ya huduma za mazingira zinazotolewa na makazi ndani ya eneo la Coastal Bend Bays na Estuaries Program ili vipengele vya mfumo wa ikolojia vinavyoweza kutambuliwa kwa mbinu za usimamizi wa mfumo wa ikolojia. Mradi huu utaunda chombo kipya na chati zilizosasishwa, kwa kutumia ramani ya awali kwa sababu tayari ina makazi na maadili yaliyotambuliwa ndani ya mkoa. "Hii ni pamoja na data mpya kama ""GIS"" (Geo-Information System) tabaka: ""Salinity"" (kwa mfano, mvua na kavu miaka kupatikana kutoka Texas Water Development Bodi na kutumika katika ripoti za mapendekezo ya mtiririko wa mazingira); ""Larvae samaki wingi na usambazaji"" kupatikana kutoka Scott Holt ya Chuo Kikuu cha Texas Marine Science Institute; ""Kidogo na vijana samaki na invertebrate wingi na usambazaji"" kupatikana kutoka kwa muda mrefu, samaki huru ""save"" tafiti uliofanywa na Texas Hifadhi na Wanyama wa asili." Habari inapatikana juu ya aina maalum ya salinity uvumilivu itakuwa jumuishi. Hata hivyo, mambo ya ziada kama vile kuathiri rasilimali za kibiolojia katika uingizaji na uharibifu wa maji au hali ya ubora wa sediment karibu na kutiririka bado inaweza kuwa na athari mbaya kwa spishi zenye uvumilivu wa juu kwa kuongezeka kwa hali ya chumvi. Ripoti ya mwisho sasa inapatikana katika sehemu ya Downloads.