Tracklines for bottom video collected using the MINI-SEABOSS sampler in Barnegat Bay, NJ by the U.S. Geological Survey during 3 surveys in 2012 and 2013 (Esri polyline shapefile, Geographic, WGS 84)

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, they collected data 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), subbottom profiler for imaging sediment layers beneath the floor of the estuary, and sediment samples with bottom photographs for ground validation of the acoustic data. 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）与新泽西州环境保护部（New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection）于2011年联合启动一项多学科研究项目，聚焦新泽西海岸沿线巴内加特湾-小蛋港河口的水质状况。该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实现水体交换，当前正面临水质退化、藻华爆发、海草床消失，以及缺氧事件、海藻、刺荨麻和棕潮现象加剧等多重环境问题。鉴于该河口的规模与内部问题的复杂性，亟需采用多学科研究路径：一方面对其物理特征（如水深、潮流的大小与方向、海底及海底以下沉积物的分布）进行系统表征，另一方面模拟各类物理特征的相互作用如何影响河口水质。来自美国地质调查局马萨诸塞州伍兹霍尔市与佛罗里达州圣彼得斯堡市海岸与海洋地质项目办公室的科研人员，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月完成全部作业。在新泽西州环境保护部提供资助、美国地质调查局新泽西州水科学中心提供后勤支持的前提下，科研团队使用多套地球物理工具采集数据：包括用于测量海底水深的条带测深声呐（swath bathymetric sonar）、用于采集声学反向散射数据（acoustic-backscatter data，可反映海底质地与沉积物类型）的侧扫声呐（sidescan sonar）、用于成像河口海底以下沉积物层的浅地层剖面仪（subbottom profiler），以及用于对声学数据进行实地验证的海底沉积物样本与底栖照片。
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