“Ecological Resilience Indicators for Five Northern Gulf of Mexico Ecosystems” report now available

NatureServe, in partnership with USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, The Nature Conservancy, University of Texas, Austin, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Ocean Conservancy, has just published a recommended set of indicators to assess ecological resilience for five ecosystem types in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Funded by the NOAA RESTORE Science Program, this project established conceptual ecological models for salt marsh, mangrove, seagrass, oyster and coral ecosystems to guide the identification of the indicators, the metrics used to assess them, and metric ratings that allow evaluation of ecological condition and ecosystem service provision. The study also provides a spatial analysis of the existing monitoring programs that are collecting data for the indicators to identify opportunities for additional data collection. This work is meant to help guide the collection of data that will inform living marine resource management, restoration planning and evaluation, damage assessment and recovery, and ecosystem health assessment. The project report and list of indicators can be downloaded at http://www.natureserve.org/conservation-tools/projects/ecological-resilience-indicators-five-northern-gulf-mexico-ecosystems . The spatial analysis is available at http://maps.coastalresilience.org/gulfmex/.