Most of the recreational fishing, aquaculture and tourism activities take place in near-shore estuarine and coastal regions. The effects of land-side processes such as river discharge and run-offs, and ocean-side processes on these regions are often not well known. To help fill this gap for coastal waters of the US East coast and Gulf of Mexico, we have entered into a collaboration with the US National Park Service to collect carbonate parameter samples within park boundaries in addition to other water quality measurements. The participating parks cover a wide range of ecosystems, including estuaries, salt marshes, mangroves, etc and climate systems ranging from subtropical to humid continental. Samples are routinely collected in winter and summer, and whenever an ocean acidification cruise is taking place (every 4 years in summer), sample collection is coordinated with the cruise to connect the near-shore with the open ocean conditions. Here we present preliminary results of our efforts. Despite the sparsity of measurements, our data show how varied the carbonate chemistry and OA conditions are in these parks and how essential it is to increase data collection to improve coastal models and provide realistic validation data. The dataset will also be useful for park managers working to preserve coastal ecosystems in our National Parks.

Primary Presenter: Leticia Barbero, University of Miami (leticia.barbero@noaa.gov)

Authors:

Denis Pierrot, NOAA  (denis.pierrot@noaa.gov)

Eva DiDonato, U.S. National Park Service  (eva_didonato@nps.gov)