Interdisciplinary

Mini-conference: “The Pleasant Bay Ecosystem: Past, Present and Future”

Forty-six people attended a workshop held Saturday 3/26/2022 at the Chatham Community Center, which featured a keynote address, twelve oral presentations, two panel discussions, and a poster session.

The mini-conference was followed by a closing social at Pleasant Bay Community Boating, including a campus tour and viewing of the solar-powered research vessel R/V Friend of Pleasant Bay. Attendees highlighted the value of monitoring more than single ecosystem components, noting the need to examine the relationships between components and how those change over time, especially in the context of multiple stressors like climate change and nutrient pollution, and to measure success of our efforts to repair damage caused by anthropogenic impacts as well via habitat restoration and conservation. Participants noted the importance of community involvement and citizen science, and the need to foster collaboration around the Bay in both science and education.

The workshop provided a foundation upon which to develop a long-term, interdisciplinary monitoring program as an essential component of a holistic, ecosystem-level approach to conservation, research, education and management as we maintain our relationship with this dynamic ecosystem in a changing climate.

The workshop was organized by Owen Nichols (Center for Coastal Studies), Sarah Griscom and Ali Hogue (Pleasant Bay Community Boating), and Carole Ridley (Pleasant Bay Alliance), and supported by a Southeast New England Program (SNEP) Watershed Grant funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through a collaboration with Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE).

CLICK HERE to view a recording of the meeting, courtesy of the Town of Chatham
CLICK HERE to download the workshop report


Marine Ecosystem Assessment of Pleasant Bay

The Friends of Pleasant Bay funded the Center for Coastal Studies to conduct an interdisciplinary, multi-scale ecosystem assessment of Pleasant Bay between 2014 and 2017. The goal of this assessment was to create an important dataset of baseline information assessing the present status of the natural resources of Pleasant Bay that can be used to develop a long-term habitat monitoring program.

CLICK HERE to download the Technical Report
CLICK HERE to down load Appendix 1

CLICK HERE to download Appendix 2

CLICK HERE to download the Report-in-Brief

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