Monitoring and Analysis of Sediment and Nutrients and their associated pollutants

Summary

Coastal bays and estuaries are often subject to nonpoint source pollution from adjacent watersheds. Enrichment of nutrients can cause excessive algal blooms, exceedances of the dissolved oxygen standard, and serious community issues.  Adequate sediment supply from adjacent watersheds is important to maintain shoreline geomorphology, sustain critical coastal habitats, reduce coastal flooding and island breaching potential, and protect infrastructure. Meanwhile, these fine sediment supplies are also often accompanied by loadings of various pollutants such as pesticides, nutrients, and bacteria that are associated with them.  Texas A&M University - Kingsville will monitor sediment and nutrients loads into the Nueces/Corpus Christi Bay and address identified pollutant data gaps. The project will produce a comprehensive data set and analysis to derive crucial parameters to quantify sediment and nutrient loads in the area and contribute to the understanding of the overall coastal morphology changes and ecosystem functions.