Projects & Programs
State of the Nearshore Ecosystem Along the Eastern Shoreline of Central Puget Sound
Nearshore Definition: Riparian and coastal lanfforms to -30 m MLL W (photic zone)
A primary effort toward salmon recovery planning will be the preparation of watershed assessments to determine and document existing watershed conditions. PNNL is currently preparing for the King County Department of Natural Resources, in support to the Nearshore Technical Committee, a reconnaissance assessment document on nearshore resources in King County's Watershed Resource Inventory Areas WRIAs 8 and 9 (comprising most of the coastline between Tacoma and Everett) as part of Puget Sound's region-wide salmon recovery planning effort. The habitats and processes of the nearshore zone, defined as the area between the riparian zone and the lower photic zone (-30 m MLLW), are of critical importance to a wide variety of marine species, and remain one of the least studied links in regional salmonid life histories. Because of historical losses and degradation of nearshore habitat, many of the resources in this area have suffered. Despite numerous existing studies and data sets on a variety of nearshore topics, there has been no comprehensive summary of this information to date, and major data gaps still remain in understanding of the nearshore ecosystem.
Approach: The study serves as the first step in a reconnaissance-level assessment of the nearshore watershed in WRIAs 8 and 9 by providing information on the fundamental state of the understanding of the major ecological conditions, habitats, processes and resources that occur in the nearshore zone, while also identifying key data gaps. As such, this study pulls together and summarizes the major sets of information on the fundamental aspects of the nearshore ecosystem in WRIAs 8 and 9 as developed in key reports and data sets. This information was developed from data sets and documents identified in a series of Nearshore Technical Committee Workshops that were critical in developing technology and information exchange.
The study addresses the following aspects of the nearshore environment:
- Definition of the nearshore zone
- Distributions of major habitat types (substrata, vegetation)
- Shoreline conditions (riparian zones, armoring, overwater structures, etc.)
- Primary productivity dynamics and rates
- Food-web interactions
- Nutrient dynamics and other water properties including water quality (particularly in Elliott Bay and the Duwamish River)
- Sediment dynamics and patterns including sediment quality in Elliott Bay and the Duwamish River
- Salmonid distribution and use Other finfish distribution and use.
Results: Final recommendations and conclusions included guidance on assessment, monitoring, and methods that will be used for nearshore watershed planning and salmon recovery efforts; direction for future technical work; as a resource to researchers, planners, and managers dealing with coastline issues in the region and potentially by a joint state agency effort to support revision of the Washington State Administrative Codes. Ultimately, this study provides a critical information resource that recommends and will be used to support collaborative monitoring, data sharing, consistent and comparable methods and public information reporting.
Benefit to Sponsor: This work provides the client with the scientific framework that clarifies the importance of the nearshore ecosystem to salmon recovery efforts and will assist managers and researchers in watershed planning efforts.
Kudos or other client feed-back received from the Sponsor: The project sponsor was extremely pleased with our efforts ("beyond the call of duty") and the end result (200+ page document), which is serving as a model for other regional (Puget Sound-wide) assessments. Findings were presented at local (Puget Sound Research Conference) and national (Estuarine Research Federation) meetings with the client as co-author. Basd on personal recommendations by the client, PNNL has taken on similar projects with other local government entities (e.g., City of Bainbridge Island).