Evaluating Groundwater Inflow and Nutrient Transport to Texas Coastal Embayments

Summary

Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi will conduct a series of attainable objectives that will improve understanding of groundwater contributions to water quality and habitat degradation in relevant embayments of the South Texas coast. Objectives are: 1) map groundwater discharge and groundwater-surface water interaction zones, 2) quantify the spatial-temporal distribution of groundwater contaminant (nutrients, organic matter) transport and discharge, 3) evaluate the role of groundwater nutrients in system-wide nutrient budgets (i.e., inputs-outputs), and 4) evaluate hypoxia and phytoplankton (red & brown tide) trends in relation to groundwater flow and nutrient discharge.