Bernardo Vargas-Angel

Culebra Nearshore Water Quality Monitoring Program Work Plan

2024

NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program; Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

"This monitoring work plan is a key component of Culebra's Land-based Sources of Pollution (LBSP) Ridge to Reef Monitoring Program aimed at providing standardized guidelines and methods to monitor changes in land-based pollutant loads, nearshore land-based pollutant exposure, and seagrass habitat responses across the island. These monitoring activities are spatially and temporally coordinated and represent the basis of Culebra's Integrated LBSP Monitoring and Evaluation Framework to successfully evaluate progress toward achieving NOAA's LBSP management goals and outcomes on Culebra. This Work Plan outlines nearshore water quality monitoring to evaluate changes in land-based sources of pollution (LBSP) exposure in the coastal environment over time and is aligned with NOAA LBSP management goals, outcomes, and evaluation questions. This water quality monitoring program was also designed to: 1. Develop water quality characterization and monitoring guidelines and protocols that can be implemented throughout Puerto Rico and the greater Caribbean as a model for cost effective water quality monitoring. 2. Establish reference-based water quality targets with which to evaluate the success of LBSP management investments on Culebra. 3. Conduct outreach activities to inform and to engage both local community, federal, and Puerto Rican government officials in ongoing natural resource management, restoration, and conservation efforts on Culebra."

Puerto Rico, Culebra, watershed, land-based sources of pollution, LBSP, coral reef, water quality

NMFS

OHC

FY2024 CRCP Project ID 30033; Project Title: Reducing LBSP threats from unpaved roads on Culebra Island; Principal Investigator: Lisa Vandiver