PNG formatted images of EdgeTech 424 seismic-reflection profiles collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in Barnegat Bay, NJ in 2011, 2012, and 2013.

Water quality in the Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor estuary along the New Jersey coast is the focus of a multidisciplinary research project begun in 2011 by the U.S. Geological Survey in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. This narrow estuary is the drainage for the Barnegat Watershed and flushed by just three inlets connecting it to the Atlantic Ocean, is experiencing degraded water quality, algal blooms, loss of seagrass, and increases in oxygen-depletion events, seaweed, stinging nettles, and brown tide. The scale of the estuary and the scope of the problems within it necessitate a multidisciplinary approach that includes characterizing its physical characteristics (for example, depth, magnitude and direction of tidal currents, distribution of seafloor and subseafloor sediment) and modeling how the physical characteristics interact to affect the estuary's water quality. Scientists from USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program offices in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and St. Petersburg, Florida, began mapping the seafloor of the Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor estuary in November 2011 and completed in September 2013. With funding from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and logistical support from the USGS New Jersey Water Science Center, data were collected with a suite of geophysical tools, including swath bathymetric sonar for measuring seafloor depth, a sidescan sonar for collecting acoustic-backscatter data (which provides information about seafloor texture and sediment type), and a subbottom profiler for imaging sediment layers beneath the floor of the estuary. More information about the individual USGS surveys conducted as part of this study can be found on Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Field Activity webpages: >2011-041-FA: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2011-041-FA >2012-003-FA: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2012-003-FA >2013-014-FA: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2013-014-FA >2013-030-FA: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2013-030-FA

美国地质调查局（U.S. Geological Survey, USGS）于2011年启动一项多学科研究项目，聚焦新泽西海岸沿线的巴内加特湾-小蛋港河口（Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor estuary）的水质状况，合作方为新泽西州环境保护部（New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection）。
这片狭长河口为巴内加特流域的排水区域，仅通过三处入海口与大西洋相连实现水体交换，当前正面临水质退化、藻华、海草床消失、缺氧事件频发、海藻滋生、刺荨麻泛滥以及棕色潮（brown tide）爆发等一系列环境问题。
该河口的规模与内部问题的复杂性，亟需采用多学科研究手段，包括对其物理特征（如水深、潮流的强度与方向、海底及海底下沉积物分布）进行表征，并模拟各类物理特征如何相互作用以影响河口水质。
来自美国地质调查局马萨诸塞州伍兹霍尔海岸与海洋地质项目办公室以及佛罗里达州圣彼得堡办公室的科研人员，于2011年11月启动巴内加特湾-小蛋港河口的海底测绘工作，并于2013年9月完成此项任务。
本项目获得新泽西州环境保护部的资金支持，以及美国地质调查局新泽西水科学中心的后勤协助，科研团队采用了一系列地球物理工具开展数据采集：包括用于测量海底水深的条带测深声呐（swath bathymetric sonar）、用于采集声学背散射数据（可反映海底纹理与沉积物类型）的侧扫声呐，以及用于成像河口海底下方沉积物层的浅地层剖面仪（subbottom profiler）。
有关本研究中各项美国地质调查局野外调查的更多详细信息，可访问伍兹霍尔海岸与海洋科学中心野外活动网页：
>2011-041-FA: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2011-041-FA
>2012-003-FA: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2012-003-FA
>2013-014-FA: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2013-014-FA
>2013-030-FA: http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/ia/public_ds_info.php?fa=2013-030-FA