An Ecological Monitoring Program (EMP) has been established at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science Eastern Shore Laboratory (VIMS ESL) for the coastal environment near the Wachapreague lab. The goals of the initiative are to 1) provide status and trends information to scientists who study and regulators who manage Virginia’s marine resources, 2) provide a scientific context for short-term research and grant proposals 3) provide pedagogical enrichment for educators to use in their classes, and 4) build capacity in staff expertise and training of interns and students at VIMS ESL.
The program formalizes and standardizes data collection for a long-term status and trends database as an asset of VIMS ESL in addition to our marine operations and shore support facilities. The EMP standard methods also provide visiting scientists and educators with protocols for consistent and comparable work and training. The EMP includes electronic water quality stations, oyster settlement and adult population dynamics, microbial biofilm growth, characterization of benthic communities in soft sediments and oyster reefs, sediment characteristics, and drone surveillance of salt marsh die back, Wachapreague Inlet dynamics and macroalgae distribution on mudflats. While this document focuses on these core areas of our monitoring activities, results of other VIMS ESL research on shellfish aquaculture, bay scallop restoration, and shorter-term grant supported research projects are reported elsewhere
