Nutrients & Nutrient Impacts
Priorities for Productive Marine Ecosystems
Sunset over a coastal marsh. Photo credit: Gulf of Mexico Alliance Governors' Action Plan
The determination of healthy levels of nutrients is an important step toward reducing their impact, and providing vital management tools. Establishing nutrient criteria for coastal waters and estuaries could improve their quality and productivity, but the challenge is to eliminate only the excess nutrients while maintaining adequate levels to ensure ecosystem productivity. The Alliance is providing a collaborative approach to build and evaluate tools needed to reduce excess nutrients and restore coastal waters that have been negatively impacted by nutrients.
Long-term Goals
- Design a regional process for comparing nutrient criteria across coastal and estuarine waters
- Develop and implement strategies that reduce nutrient inputs and hypoxia
- Establish a comprehensive ecosystem approach to manage nutrient inputs and reduce impacts to coastal ecosystems
- Increase the capacity of Gulf coastal communities so that nutrient impacts are better managed and reduced
N-1: Nutrient Characterization
Action: Implement regional nutrient characterization studies to evaluate ecosystem responses and to develop the tools for better characterization of nutrients in coastal waters.
Expected Results:
- Nutrient impacts are adequately characterized to establish key ecological relationships, thresholds, and socioeconomic values for state-selected indicators.
- Integrated models are designed and used to estimate nutrient loads, establish goals, and predict the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of management decisions for the Gulf States.
- Improved science and management tools are employed to better understand how freshwater and wetland systems influence nutrient impacts.
N-2: Nutrient Criteria Development
Action: Identify common state needs and priorities for the development of nutrient criteria and provide support and technical assistance to facilitate a regional approach to nutrient criteria development and management.
Expected Results:
- Milestones are established for state-specific Nutrient Criteria Development Plans for all Gulf States.
- A consistent framework exists for the development of appropriate and protective coastal nutrient criteria.
- Regional forums are organized for communication and resource sharing to address nutrient pollution to coastal ecosystems.
- Nutrient criteria are established for at least one Gulf estuary.
N-3: Hypoxia
Action: Coordinate strategies and provide guidance to better characterize hypoxia and the resulting socioeconomic impacts.
Expected Results:
- An integrated, regionally-comparable model that predicts hypoxia and its impacts is developed.
- Watershed nutrient reduction plans are complete and include strategies for reducing Gulf hypoxia in state-selected priority watersheds.
- Nutrient reduction plans for at least five project areas are developed.
- A partnership between the Alliance and the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force is formed to implement nutrient reduction and monitoring strategies within the Mississippi River Watershed.
N-4: Nutrient Reduction Strategies
Action: Develop management tools and implement nutrient reduction activities in cooperation with local communities to reduce excess nutrient inputs to estuaries and coastal waters.
Expected Results:
- Awareness of the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of nutrient pollution and prevention is significantly enhanced.
- There is an increase in access to information documenting nutrient reduction progress for Gulf States and partners.
- A nutrient reduction strategy template is developed that can be applied to Gulf of Mexico watersheds.
- Additional partnerships with upstream states are formed.
Barataria Bay salt marsh, Jefferson Parish, LA. Photo credit: Gulf of Mexico Alliance Governors' Action Plan
Highlights of Governors’ Action Plan Accomplishments
Gulf of Mexico Alliance Water Quality / Hydrodynamics Model Database (zip, 707kb)
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