The proposed funding will be used to acquire 2019 imagery for western Puerto Rico. This imagery will be used as the basis for updating the existing, but out-of-date 2010 land cover data. The new date of land cover will provide current conditions for the w...
Treatment wetlands at the Guánica wastewater treatment plant (WWTP)
The Guánica wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is the largest source of nitrogen in the Guánica Bay/ Rio Loco watershed. As such, NOAA identified the construction of treatment wetlands to remove nutrients at the WWTP as a high priority restoration project ...
Seeding reefs with Diadema antillarum to enhance coral recovery in Puerto Rico
Over the past three decades, coral reefs in the Caribbean have suffered massive declines due to cumulative factors such as hurricanes, disease outbreaks, bleaching, pollution, and overfishing. Many reefs in the Caribbean have lost their capacity to recove...
Project funding will support a final year of coordination that NOAA’s Coral Program and Protectores de Cuencas (PdC) provides as part of the broader Guánica Watershed Partnership Initiative. PdC serves a vital role in developing local capacity to address ...
Expanding erosion and sediment control capacity throughout Guanica and Cabo Rojo watersheds, PR
NOAA CRCP’s has provided funding to regionally adapt and refine erosion and sediment control (E&SC) techniques (e.g., hydroseeding) and build capacity for E&SC across the Guanica watershed. This investment has led to the stabilization of nearly 20 acres w...
Ocean Color Product for Monitoring the Threat of Land-Based Sources of Pollution to Coral Reefs
New satellite products to monitor the threat of land-based sources of pollution (LBSP) to coral reefs are being developed by NESDIS/STAR’s Ocean Color Team in conjunction with Coral Reef Watch (CRW). Following two years of in-house prototype work (FY13/14...
ESA Candidate Species Active Population Enhancement: Targeted Research to Develop Optimal Methods.
Active population enhancement of corals in the US Caribbean has focused on Acropora spp. propagation techniques for aiding their recovery and restoring coral reefs. The recent listing of an additional 5 species as threatened under the ESA due to sharp dec...
Both Acropora cervicornis and A. palmata have suffered dramatic declines throughout the entire Caribbean over the last few decades (Bruckner, 2002) which led to the inclusion of these species as "Threatened" under the Endangered Species Act in 2006. As a ...
Capacity Building for Coral Grounding Injuries in the Caribbean
US coral reefs are impacted by hundreds of grounding incidents annually. In the aftermath of groundings, impacted corals are often broken, dislodged, or flipped over. These fragments are subject to abrasion, scour, and sedimentation, which ultimately resu...
This project will provide support to the US Caribbean to respond to the damaging impacts of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD). SCTLD, detected in the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in 2019, has continued to cause significant damages throughout co...
Updating C-CAP for Western Puerto Rico