SECN Highlights October 2023 (U.S. National Park Service)

Collage of fieldwork photos behind the words Southeast Coast Inventory and Monitoring Network

Data Management: New Wadeable Database in Production

A new database for wadeable stream habitat monitoring was put into production in September. The new database, which features a SQL back end for data storage and a web-based user interface, will streamline data reporting and publication.

Wendy Completes Detail at Central Support Office

Southeast Coast Network Data Manager Wendy Wright recently completed a 120-day detail with the Central Support Office Data Management Team. During the course of her detail, Wendy met with data managers, network program managers, regional program managers, ecologists and biologists from all 32 networks in individual network calls and Teams meetings. Wendy discussed data management and data publication status and support needs with each network for every protocol implemented in IMD. Over 700 individual data streams were documented across the Inventory and Monitoring Division. The networks were provided a written summary of the meetings and their networks "State of the Data." A wish list of data support requests from each network was collected.

New Shoreline Data Package

An open-data geo package containing all shoreline data collected by the Southeast Coast Network from 2017–2023 has been published. This geo package meets open data requirements outlined in the Open Government Data Act of 2018. The geo packages can be opened in open-source applications such as QGIS and don’t require ESRI products to view. They also contain embedded Federal Geographic Data Committee (FDGC) compliant metadata. The complete shoreline open data set will consist of one tabular data package with event and logistical data and one geo spatial data GeoPackage. Kudos to SECN Coastal Technician Abby Gonzalez for pushing through the geospatial open data requirements! This will be one of the first geospatial datasets published in IMD that meets open data requirements. It is available at DataStore - Southeast Coast Network Shoreline Change Monitoring GeoPackages 2018-2023 Shoreline Change Data (nps.gov)

People standing in a marsh on a platform and a man talking to a group in front of a large screen — Top, SECN Coastal Ecologist William Vervaeke, far right, assists students and staff from the University of North Florida with SET installations near Jacksonville, Florida. Bottom, Ches speaks at GTMNERR meeting.
NPS photos

Beyond the Network

SECN Coastal Ecologist William "Ches" Vervake co-authored a paper that was featured in a recent issue of Coastal and Estuarine Science News (CESN). Movin' on Up: Assessing Mangrove Expansion in the U.S., highlighted the work of 52 coastal scientists who met to discuss the distribution of mangroves along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is available to view at CESN 2023 Issue 4 (memberclicks.net). The paper is titled, Rapidly Changing Range Limits in a Warming World: Critical Data Limitations and Knowledge Gaps for Advancing Understanding of Mangrove Range Dynamics in the Southeastern USA.

Lecturing and Helping out at UNF

Ches lectured on mangroves at a recent Biology Seminar Series sponsored by the Biology Department in the University of North Florida's College of Arts and Sciences. In August, Ches assisted UNF students with Surface Elevation Table (SET) installations in Jacksonville.

GTMNERR Presentation

Ches presented "Changing Elevation in a Dynamic Ecotone" to the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM NERR) Technical Advisory Group in July. The Reserve is a partner of the Southeast Coast Network.