NNoorrtthheerrnn GGuullff IInnssttiittuuttee Cooperative Institute Progress Report NOAA Award #: NA06OAR4320264 Reporting Period: July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................. 5 PART 1 – Program Overview ........................................................................................................ 8 PART 2 – Performance of Projects ............................................................................................. 19 List of NOAA Awards to NGI with Currently Active Projects ............................................................... 19 PROJECT 06-DISL-01: Marine Education and Outreach at Dauphin Island Sea Lab ............ 21 PROJECT1B 06-DISL-02: Restoring Estuarine Landscapes in Alabama Coastal Waters Through the Creation of Oyster Reefs ....................................................................................... 27 PROJECT2B 06-LSU-01: DELTA Ecosystem Forecasting System .............................................. 34 PROJECT3B 06-LSU-02: Public Health and Stressors ................................................................. 39 PROJECT4B 06-LSU-03: Trophic Linkages and Biomass Production in Estuarine Ecosystems ....................................................................................................................................................... 47 PROJECT5B 06-LSU-04: Investigating Material Exchange Between the Marsh and Channel Along an Estuarine Gradient ...................................................................................................... 51 PROJECT6B 06-MSU-01: Developing a Foundation for Analysis of Natural and Human- Induced Disturbances to Coastal Economies ........................................................................... 56 PROJECT7B 06-MSU-02: Assessing the Impact of Ordinances, Outreach and Enforcement on the Resiliency of Gulf Coastal Watersheds ............................................................................... 67 PROJECT8B 06-MSU-03: Watershed Modeling Improvements to Enhance Coastal Ecosystems .................................................................................................................................. 75 PROJECT9B 06-MSU-04: Spatial Technology and High Performance Computing for Improving Prediction of Surface Water Quality ........................................................................................... 85 PROJECT10B 06-MSU-06: Visualization Techniques for Improving Public Understanding of Catastrophic Events .................................................................................................................... 97 PROJECT11B 06-MSU-07: An Information Semantic Approach for Resource and Knowledge Discovery in an Integrated Ocean Observing System ........................................................... 102 PROJECT12B 06-MSU-08: Northern Gulf Institute Outreach Efforts .......................................... 110 PROJECT13B 06-MSU-09: Improving Hurricane Intensity and Landfall Estimation with Refined Modeling ..................................................................................................................................... 115 PROJECT14B 06-USM-01: Microbial Source Tracking and its Application to the Northern Gulf of Mexico ..................................................................................................................................... 119 PROJECT15B 06-USM-03: Monitoring and Assessment of Coastal and Marine Ecosystems in the Northern Gulf ....................................................................................................................... 123 NGI Cooperative Institute Progress Report Reporting Period: July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010 NOAA Award #: NA06OAR4320264 3 PROJECT16B 06-USM-04: Interaction Between Off-shore Circulation and Nearshore Processes During Extreme Weather Events .............................................................................................. 129 PROJECT17B 06-USM-05: Satellite and in situ Optical Assessment of Algal Bloom Events in the Northern Gulf of Mexico ...................................................................................................... 136 PROJECT18B 06-USM-07: Quantifying Ecosystem Services of Different Coastal Habitat Types ..................................................................................................................................................... 142 PROJECT19B 09-NGI-MOD-12: Development of Prototype Integrated Ecosystem Assessments in the Northern Gulf of Mexico ................................................................................................. 147 PROJECT20B 09-NGI-MOD-16: Air Monitoring and Analysis at Grand Bay NERR .................... 153 PROJECT21B 09-NGI-MOD-17: Risk Wise Communities Partnership Workshop: Defining Partnership Social Marketing Targets: Behavior, Benefits, and Barriers ............................ 156 PROJECT22B 09-NGI-MOD-18: Trophic Support of Fishery Production in Salt Marshes related to Tidal Inundation Patterns ..................................................................................................... 158 PROJECT23B 09-NGI-MOD-19: Optimizing the Use of Lightning Data in Severe Storm Warning Assessment ................................................................................................................................ 161 PROJECT24B 09-NGI-MOD-20: NOAA/NGI Minority Summer 2009 Internship Program .......... 166 PROJECT25B 09-NGI-MOD-21: NOAA/NGI 2009 Mississippi Water Resources Conference Student Travel Program ............................................................................................................ 169 PROJECT26B 09-NGI-MOD-22: Advanced Data Assimilation Experiments for GOES-R Series Applications ................................................................................................................................ 171 PROJECT27B 09-NGI-MOD-23/25: Developing an Understanding of Research and Operational Needs in the Gulf Region for the NOAA UAS Project ............................................................ 173 PROJECT28B 09-NGI-MOD-24: NOAA Coastal Storms Program – ADCIRC (Storm Surge) Grid Cataloging Project ..................................................................................................................... 175 PROJECT29B 09-NGI-MOD-26: Balloon and Payload Acquisition for WISDOM Activities during the 2009 Hurricane Season ....................................................................................................... 178 PROJECT30B 09-NGI-MOD-27: AmoebaNet – Testing Advanced Network Capabilities Using GeoFish and OceanNOMADS ................................................................................................... 182 PROJECT31B 09-NGI-MOD-28: NGI & NCDDC Hyperspectral Imagery Support to the GOMA Habitat Project for Grand Bay NERR ....................................................................................... 184 PROJECT32B 09-NGI-MOD-29: Development of a Northern Gulf of Mexico Operational Forecast System ........................................................................................................................ 186 PROJECT33B 09-NGI-MOD-30: NOAA/NGI Summer 2009 EDAC Internships ............................ 190 PROJECT34B 09-NGI-MOD-31: The Mississippi Digital Earth Model .......................................... 192 PROJECT35B 09-NGI-MOD-33: NGI Support for Gulf of Mexico Alliance 2009 Governors Action Plan Implementation and Integration Workshop .................................................................... 195 PROJECT 09-NGI-01: Developing a Tool for Cost Effective Best Management Practices and Resilient Communities .............................................................................................................. 197 PROJECT 09-NGI-02: From Physics to Fish: Modeling the Effect of Pulsed River Diversion on Fish Distribution ................................................................................................................... 201 NGI Cooperative Institute Progress Report Reporting Period: July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010 NOAA Award #: NA06OAR4320264 4 PROJECT 09-NGI-03: Riverine and Estuarine Carbon Export to the Coastal Ocean, Northern Gulf of Mexico ............................................................................................................ 206 PROJECT 09-NGI-04: Spatial Variation and Temporal Trend of Water Quality in the Northern Gulf of Mexico ............................................................................................................ 209 PROJECT 09-NGI-05: Sediment and Mercury Path Fate Modeling ....................................... 213 PROJECT 09-NGI-06: Toward an Understanding of Gulf Coast Resident Preferences and Perceptions on Risk and Restoration ...................................................................................... 217 PROJECT 09-NGI-07: Food Webs Without Borders: A Case for Ecosystem-based Management in the Northern Gulf of Mexico .......................................................................... 221 PROJECT 09-NGI-08: Understanding Coastal Resiliency from Hurricane Impacts Using Integrated Modeling and Observations ................................................................................... 224 PROJECT 09-NGI-09: Visual Analytics for Assessment and Interpretation of Simulated River Flooding ...........................................................................................................................