"Too Many Neighbors: Planning for Nitrogen in Coastal Watersheds "

James N. Kremer

Synopsis:

Nitrogen from human activities is having a dramatic impact on our coastal waters. At least 50% of the US population lives in the coastal zone, and the resulting eutrophication may be the single most pervasive impact in these nearby and productive ecosystems. The impacts on large estuaries (Long Island Sound, Chesapeake Bay) are notorious, yet important and often more dramatic changes are occurring in the shallow coastal embayments that are close to where so many of us live. Informed management and planning requires that changing land use in coastal watersheds be related in a reliable way to potential impacts in these marine ecosystems. Computer models are potentially useful tools in this effort, but the usual modeling approach is site-specific, time consuming, and expensive, making it untenable for most modest coastal communities. My students and I are working to develop a simple yet general model that may be reliable and useful for managers and planners.