Coastal Watershed Grant (CWG)

Groundwater refugia for eelgrass restoration

Project Lead: Peconic Estuary Partnership, Dr. Bradley Peterson (Stony Brook University), Dr. Joe Tamborski (Old Dominion University)

Funding: $250,000 from EPA Coastal Watershed Grant

This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection
Agency under cooperative agreement 83967501 to Restore America’s Estuaries.

Rising water temperatures are restricting seagrass coverage to areas of increased oceanic influence throughout the northeastern US. Resource managers are faced with the reality that climate change is rendering many current restoration strategies ineffective. This project will demonstrate the use of groundwater as thermal refugia in an emerging restoration strategy. Using novel groundwater assessment techniques for radon profiles as a marker of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and seagrass transplant techniques, we will test and demonstrate an approach that has the potential to transform this type of eelgrass restoration. Doing so will make such projects more predictable and effective, allowing for larger-scale efforts in estuaries impacted by groundwater discharge.

Suffolk County Department of Health, Ecology Division has provided staff and vessel time for the targeted transects necessary to assess SGD using this method. Survey days at sea were successful and will yield the necessary information to move this work forward. As a long standing partner and co-host of the Peconic Estuary Partnership (PEP), this was a valuable contribution to the ongoing joint efforts at marine habitat conservation and water quality protection.