Another area of focus for the CREC is research directed at understanding the ecology of coastal ecosystems and using these results to address coastal management and conservation issues. In particular, this research focuses poorly understood habitats such as wet pine savannas, salt pannes, maritime forests, and salt marshes. Research staff at the CREC are conducting research to understand the ecological relationships between the flora and fauna of these and other unique habitats along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico

For example, researchers from the CREC, in collaboration with scientists from the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (the University of Southern Mississippi), the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, and the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, are currently using remote sensing and GIS technologies to map the locations and extent of the sensitive habitats. Further, they are conducting studies of the physical characteristics and plant life of salt pannes as well as surveying the insects, fishes, birds and mammals to better understand the ecological relationships between organisms of these sensitive habitats. Here, MSU-CREC researcher Dr. Mark Woodrey (right) and research technician Brad Ogle, hold Clapper Rails captured and banded on the edge of salt panne at the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Jackson County, MS

In addition to the research program outlined previously, MSU-CREC research and extension staff are also involved in the coordination of research activities at the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The Grand Bay NERR is a unique partnership with the MS Department of Marine Resources and other partners in which the CREC research staff coordinate the Research & Monitoring Program at the site. A major focus of the NERR system is an emphasis on system-wide, long-term monitoring water quality and meteorological conditions at the site.

Below is a research technician, Franklin Leach, downloading water quality data from a YSI datalogger at the Grand Bay NERR. The image above shows the Campbell weather station which was erected at the NERR in early August, 2004. Data from these long-term monitoring programs are used by reserve staff to better understand the Grand Bay estuary and are also available to other researchers and the public through a website administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).