1. Seagrass Conservation in Texas Coastal Waters:
Monitoring Design Criteria and Biological Indicators for R-EMAP Region 6
Kelly Fellows
11/26/02

2. Regional Environmental and Monitoring Assessment Program (R-EMAP)
EMAP is a research program to develop the tools necessary to monitor and assess the status and trends of national ecological resources.
R-MAP tests the applicability of the EMAP approach
Uses smaller geographic scales and shorter time frames.

3. Environmental Issues in Texas Coastal Waters

4. Study Sites
Red Fish Bay
Lower Laguna Madre

5. Sampling Design Hexagons were created using the Theissen function
60 hexagons total at each site
1 random site generated within each hexagon

6. What was measured? Physiochemical Parameters
Total Suspended Solids/Light Attenuation
Nutrients
Chlorophyll
Drift Algae
Seagrass Biomass

7. …a lot of samples! 900 bags of biomass cores 600 bags of algae
540 water samples for
Total Suspended Solids
Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen
Chlorophyll
physiochemical measurements

8. Results: Depth and Salinity
Depth (cm)
Salinity (ppt)

9. Results: TSS vs Light Attenuation
TSS (mg/L)
Light Attenuation (m-1)

10. Results: Chlorophyll

11. Future Work Create more maps showing kriging of variables.
Compare some of the Red Fish Bay data with Lower Laguna Madre.

12. Acknowledgements
Andrea Kopecky and Dr. Kenneth Dunton, University of Texas Marine Science Institute
Jon Goodall and Dr. David Maidment