| Summary: | Estuaries of the Atlantic coastal New Jersey extend from Newark Bay southward to Cape May Inlet. The rich diversities of habitats found in these estuaries provide important nursery areas for fish and marine invertebrates. Federal and state agencies routinely monitor estuaries for various chemical, physical and biological parameters. Unfortunately, there is substantial controversy regarding the present ability of monitoring programs to document water quality improvements or declines on regional and national scales. In response to this concern, a number of recommendations have been made to enhance surface water monitoring, including the application and development of promising biological techniques. These protocols are a synthesis of existing methods and designed as inexpensive screening tools for determining biological conditions. This project will further examine the potential application of macroinvertebrate protocols on estuaries in New Jersey. The study has three objectives: (l) to field validate an epifaunal index, (2) to examine the relationships between the epifaunal index, land use, and sediment quality, and (3) to compare an infaunal index with the epifaunal index. Results of the proposed study are to be used to make recommendations to NJDEP for a statewide coastal monitoring program. Note: This is the 2nd funding package - the 1st supported benthic sorting. This package provides GIS support.
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