SWMP: System-wide Monitoring Program

About SWMP

View Wells NERR Data at CDMO

The System-wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) provides standardized data on national estuarine environmental trends while allowing the flexibility to assess coastal management issues of regional or local concern. The principal mission of the System-wide Monitoring Program is to develop quantitative measurements of short-term variability and long-term change in the integrity and biodiversity of representative estuarine ecosystems and coastal watersheds for the purpose of contributing to effective coastal zone management. The program is designed to enhance the value and vision of the Reserves as a system of national reference sites. The program currently has three main components.

Abiotic Variables

SWMP measures pH, conductivity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, water level, and atmospheric conditions. Each Reserve uses a set of automated instruments and weather stations to collect data, then submits the data to a centralized data management office.

Eutrophication

The NERRS began to incorporate monitoring of nutrient concentrations into the SWMP in 2002. Nutrient monitoring is conducted at four SWMP data logger stations for at least monthly baseline samples and monthly diel (one 24 hour period, including a full day and night) samples at one SWMP data logger station. Analyses include ammonium, nitrate, nitrite, ortho-phosphate and chlorophyll a.

Land Use and Habitat Change

This component of SWMP will be developed and implemented for purposes of identifying changes in coastal ecological condition with the goal of tracking and evaluating the status of estuarine habitat change and watershed land use for all the reserves. The main objective of this element will be to examine the link between watershed land use activities and coastal habitat quality. The basic question to be addressed is "What is the magnitude and extent of habitat change in estuarine systems and how are these changes linked to watershed land use practices?"

Data collected by the SWMP are compiled electronically at the centralized data management office (CDMO) at the Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology and Coastal Research of the University of South Carolina. CDMO provides additional quality control for data and metadata. SWMP data are formatted to meet the standards of the Federal Geographical Data Committee. The CDMO then compiles and disseminates all system-wide data and summary statistics over the world-wide web, where researchers, coastal managers, and educators may readily access the information.

More Info

There's an excellent article about SWMP in NOAA magazine for September 2005, which you can read here.

Visit the NERR SWMP website.