2025 Estuarine Nutrient Enrichment Tier-2 Seagrass Monitoring Data Package

Residential, agricultural, and urban expansion in the Northeast has resulted in an increase in anthropogenic nutrient loading to the region’s coastal zone. Estuaries can generally assimilate some degree of enrichment without major ecological ramifications, but excessive nutrient inputs typically lead to dense blooms of phytoplankton and fast-growing macroalgae and loss of seagrasses. Protecting the ecological integrity of park estuaries depends on implementing a scientifically-based monitoring program that is capable of diagnosing local causes of nutrient enrichment, detecting changes in nutrient loads, and determining if nutrient inputs are near to exceeding thresholds that would result in shifts in ecosystem structure and function. The current database includes data from NCBN's Tier 2 seagrass sampling protocol for 2006 to 2025 at Cape Cod National Seashore and Fire Island National Seashore.