North Carolina Reserve

Research

The North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve encourages researchers from universities and government laboratories to use the four sites for short or long-term investigations that will promote better understanding and management of estuaries. Data from monitoring stations, an annotated bibliography of work done on each site, species lists and GIS maps are offered to participating investigators. Projects have been completed on such diverse topics as estuarine eutrophication, productivity of benthic microalgae, use of dredge material to renourish salt mashes and effects of feral horses on salt marsh productivity.

The Graduate Fellows Program of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System fosters graduate student use of the reserves for their research projects. Fellows then contribute to other current reserve programs.

The research office initiates and conducts research into the dynamics of estuaries. Two ongoing projects are: 1) a Habitat Assessment Tool that can gather water quality data for a large body of water by the use of a towed instrument and 2) the National Telemetry Project that will provide real-time weather and water quality data accessibility throughout the National Estuarine Research Reserve System.