Main Content
Current projects
Larval Fish Ingress
Larval fish have been sampled weekly on a standard protocol beginning in 1994. SWMP water quality data has contributed to the interpretation of patterns in seasonal variability, interannual variability, phenological shifts, and the effects of power plant cooling water entrainment in an adjacent estuary. Similar to larval fish sampling, a twice-weekly wire-mesh trapping program since 1985 collects data on settling juvenile fish recruitment. Similarly, an estuary-wide juvenile and adult fish trawl survey continues since 1995 in every July and September. These programs have contributed to numerous peer-reviewed papers including as baseline sites for nearby urbanized estuaries.
Acoustic Telemetry
Acoustic telemetry has episodically been used to track fish movement into and through the estuary since 2006. Fish and horseshoe crab estuarine migrations monitored by the instruments in the Mullica River-Great Bay estuary and among estuaries are analyzed using SWMP water quality data. Sonar monitoring of zooplankton and fishes through Shooting Thorofare – a side looking multibeam sonar (BIOSonics DTX-Extreme with 3 transducers, 200, 400, and 1000 kHz) was established on an old concrete radar tower base in the main thorofare delivering water from the inlet to Great Bay. The project collected 18 GB of data, but severe bank erosion broke the power and internet connection to the tower base and high currents broke the transducer mounting brackets. Transducers were recovered undamaged but further erosion has prevented redeployment.
Nursery Area for Prohibited Sharks
Acoustic telemetry of juvenile sandbar sharks to quantify habitat use of the Mullica River- Great Bay and adjacent Barnegat Bay estuarine complex as a function of season, tide stage, and temperature. Work is funded by invited RFO to partner Monmouth University by The Nature Conservancy, but information is relevant to the definition of Essential Fish Habitat.
Passive Acoustics
An Ocean Sonics iC3-Listen broad band audio frequency (1 hz-12 kHz) cabled hydrophone was deployed alongside the sonar system for nearly 2 years but had to be recovered for the same reason as the active sonar system. During the spring spawning season the initiation of spawning activity by soniferous fishes including Black Drum, Weakfish, Oyster toadfish, Silver Perch, and Cusk Eel was recorded for correlation with SWMP-collected water quality data.
Effects on fish from closing of Oyster Creek power plant
A Before-After Control Impact based on sampling between 2012 and 2020 assessed the effect of shutdown of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station on large adult (gillnetted) juvenile (trawled), and larval (plankton net) fishes while a Before-After Gradient design assessed the impact on infauna from grab samples. Work was requested as an invitational RFO by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Findings are being used to model and understand climate change effects on fish as well as understanding cumulative effects of urbanization in the estuary.
AUV and Drone Development
NJDEP Marsh Drone Monitoring. LINK TO PAGE….
Environmental DNA (eDNA)
In 2023-2024 the JC NERR volunteered, along with a number of other reserves, for a pilot/proof of concept study, to conduct environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling for fish species-specific presence co-located and correlated with its SWMP water-quality and nutrient stations. The pilot paves the way for a cost and effort-effective plan that can be proposed for future sampling and possible establishment as a core element of SWMP. The project assesses the value of eDNA at research reserve sites to provide end users with key training to support informed decisions regarding the implementation and use of eDNA for monitoring fish in estuarine systems.
Wetlands Pore Water Methane Variation as an Effect of Salinity
Wetlands can sequester carbon dioxide by burying leaf leaf litter,, roots, and other organic matter underground, but if that biomass decomposes without oxygen, methane may off gas. The effect of salinity in the pore water of wetlands in the JC NEERR was tested as an indicator of the methane content of the soils and was compared with results from 20 different NERRs across the USA. Salinity, which is easy to measure, could predict methane concentration in marsh pore water even though the chemical action was one with a sulfur compound which itself varied with salinity. This relationship, which could help map methane concentration within a marsh, help across marshes in the USA. See publication.
Marsh Ponds & Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs)
Salt marsh tidal pools are an important feature of the Tuckerton/Sheepshead Meadow marsh platform and a potential reservoir of harmful algal species but have rarely been studied. The algal assemblage of marsh pools in areas managed by mosquito-control ditching, Open-Marsh Water Management, and un-altered marsh (2 each) were sampled monthly in Spring through Fall and all, regardless of marsh type were dominated at least once during this period by Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) species, which are algae capable of producing toxins that can cause serious illness. Whether or not they produce toxins during blooms in these pools is not yet known and is the focus of further study. Work was through a collaboration with George Mason University and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for the Environmental Protection Agency. See preprint
NERRS Science Collaborative and NERRS-Wide Projects
National Synthesis of Tidal Marshes to Detect Impacts of Climate Change across Multiple Scales (NAMASTE)
Recent research within National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) sites has revealed striking changes in plant communities that seem to be caused by rising seas, including shifts toward more flood tolerant species, lower overall plant diversity, and in some cases growing swaths of bare ground. This “National Synthesis of Tidal Marshes to Detect Impacts of Climate Change across Multiple Scales” project leverages the Reserve System’s geographic diversity, nationally coordinated monitoring program, communication networks, and strong record of collaborative research to conduct a groundbreaking national study examining how marsh plant communities are responding to climate change.
Using data from NERRS marsh monitoring sites, this GIS-based tool displays local environment (tide and salinity range, management actions), monitoring design (transect placement, zone assignment) and methods (cover estimates, SET protocol), as well as additional spatial information (e.g., plant plot waypoints, Reserve boundaries, SWMP CLUE, Landscape resilience scores).
Connecting the Dots between Data and Atlantic Fisheries Management
Changes in coastal conditions, including those associated with a shifting climate, can impact the spawning, growth, and ultimately, survival of commercially and recreationally important fisheries. To assess the impacts of climate on the sustainability of fish stocks and take appropriate action, management agencies need access to long-term datasets. Much of the needed data exists, but managers may lack access to it and scientists collecting the data may not know how to make it available to those who need it.
The Jacques Cousteau Reserve, in partnership with Rutgers University and reserves in the Carolinas, created an online portal for scientists and fisheries managers to retrieve and share datasets on larval fish recruitment and environmental variables and increase the precision of management decisions.
Marsh Decomposition study with the NERRS
The JC NERR is participating in a study with other NERRS to understand marsh decomposition rate between high and low marsh. The study measures the decay rate of plant material by burying two types of tea bags (Green Tea and Rooibos) over the summer and using the weight loss of the tea bags to calculate decomposition rates. Understanding decomposition rates help monitor and track restoration projects and climate change impacts on tidal marshes.
Margaret A. Davidson Fellows
2020-2022 Fellow: Taylor Armstrong
Taylor investigated the occurrence and correlates of harmful algae bloom (HAB) forming species in the NERR. During her fellowship, Taylor documented new HAB species and identified patterns of advection, nutrient enrichment, salinity, and coastal advection vectors, as well as suppression by tannins from the largely intact pinelands watershed. Her project capitalized on the System Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP), particularly the long-term water monitoring stations and nutrient sampling regime. Taylor worked closely with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in coordinating sampling and disseminating results. Taylor has now completed her PhD. Her work was also important in formulating subsequent and ongoing DEP-funded work on HAB reservoirs and inoculum in the JC NERR.
2022-2024 Fellow: Kyra Fitz
Kyra worked on modeling the range projections for Atlantic Croaker, an economically important coastal migrant fish with obligate estuarine nursery grounds. Her approach is novel in that it considers latent genetic selection at the northern edge of the spawning migrant population, rather than population mean tolerance ranges to modify expectations of range adaptation. Understanding this as a mechanism has important implications to predicting the role of climate change on rapidly shifting fish stocks and how they might be managed. Kira continues to develop her dissertation.
2024-2026 Fellow: Chase Wunder
Chase is examining the connectivity of a facultative estuarine users species, Summer Flounder, that is common and an important economic contributor to bay fishers due to accessibility from salt marsh bay and creek shores and small family boats. There is strong public concern that electric and magnetic fields (EMF) from offshore wind farm power export cables will disrupt migration and limit estuarine entry. Chase is telemetering Summer Flounder between the estuary and ocean and examining inter-estuarine exchange to understand basic life history variation and its relation to environmental cues. These will form the basis of predictions and a baseline for measuring change relative to After wind farm construction.
