10 meter bathymetric grid of Barnegat Bay, New Jersey produced from trackline bathymetry collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2011, 2012, and 2013 (Esri binary grid, UTM 18N, 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 (USGS)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，其核心关注对象为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。该狭长河口是巴内加特流域（Barnegat Watershed）的汇水区域，仅通过三处与大西洋相连的入海口实现水体交换，当前正面临水质退化、藻华暴发、海草床消失，以及缺氧事件增多、海藻滋生、海荨麻（stinging nettles）泛滥和褐潮（brown tide）频发等问题。该河口的规模与内部问题的复杂程度，要求采用多学科研究方法，包括对其物理特征（如水深、潮流的强度与方向、海底及次海底沉积物分布等）进行表征，并模拟各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海岸与海洋地质计划下属马萨诸塞州伍兹霍尔办公室及佛罗里达州圣彼得斯堡办公室的科研人员，于2011年11月启动巴内加特湾-小蛋港河口海底测绘工作，并于2013年9月完成全部作业。依托新泽西州环境保护部提供的经费资助，以及美国地质调查局新泽西州水科学中心提供的后勤支持，科研团队采用多套地球物理工具开展数据采集工作，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（sidescan sonar）、用于成像河口海底下方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沉积物样品与海底照片。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