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Layer: Gulf_of_Mexico_Coastal_Shoreline_Regions (ID:0)

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Name: Gulf_of_Mexico_Coastal_Shoreline_Regions

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Description: To create the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Shoreline Regions (CSRs), we reviewed several publications on the region’s estuaries (e.g., Bianchi et al. 1999; Engle et al. 1999) and used our landform model (Anderson et al. 2016) to assign draft estuary types to estuarine drainage areas (EDAs) and coastal drainage areas (CDAs) in NOAA’s Coastal Assessment Framework (CAF; NOAA, 2007). Estuary types were adopted from Madden et al. (2009) in the national Coastal Marine Ecological Classification Standard types (CMECS). The first round of estuary types included Lagoonal, Riverine-dominated, and Island Archipelago.We then worked with experts from the project steering committee to revise the initial assignments, and with expert input, created a shoreline type called "Open Bay" for some estuaries in Florida. We then reviewed the revised CSRs with the full steering committee and made additional revisions to a few type assignments using HUC8 and HUC12 watershed boundaries from the Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD; NRCS, 2016).Lastly, in southern Florida, HUC8 and HUC10 watersheds were used to edit the CSRs to align with the CSRs in the adjacent South Atlantic Resilient Coastal Sites project. The project area includes the entire Gulf of Mexico shoreline of five states (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas). The coastal shoreline regions, from east to west were: Gulf of Mexico Lagoons (921 sites)This shoreline region includes lagoons, sloughs, barrier island estuaries, and tidal inlets from Tampa Bay in southern Florida to Laguna Madre in southern Texas. Lagoons tend to be shallow and mostly enclosed with reduced ocean exchange. They have very high surface to volume ratios and can be quiescent in terms of wind, current, and wave energy, although many in this region are more energetic. This shoreline region consists of the nation’s largest drainage basin, the Mississippi River Delta which includes Barataria Bay and Chandeleur Bay; large Texas lagoons including populous Galveston Bay, hypersaline Laguna Madre, and Matagorda and Aransas bays; and smaller Florida lagoons including biologically-diverse St. Andrew Bay, populous Tampa Bay, and Perdido Bay, also located in Alabama.River-Dominated RegionsRiver-dominated estuarine systems in the Gulf of Mexico receive significant inflows of freshwater as a result of an extensive upstream watershed that under natural conditions contributes a substantial load of suspended sediments. River-dominated estuaries are typically linear and seasonally turbid, especially in upper reaches, and can be subjected to high current speeds. Harbors and estuaries of the larger rivers are depositional environments and typically have deltas, spits, and sand bars. The estuaries are highly flushed, with a wide and variable salinity range, and seasonally stratified. They have moderate surface to volume ratios, high watershed to water area ratios, and have very high wetland to water area ratios. We divided the riverine-dominated region into the Western Gulf and Eastern Gulf shoreline regions as follows. Eastern Gulf Coast River-Dominated (241 sites)This shoreline region consists of river-dominated estuarine systems within the Eastern Gulf Coastal Plain ecoregion. Rivers in this region are located west of the Atlantic slope and east of the Mississippi River. While there is great variability in the size, hydrology, and geomorphology of the rivers in this region, these rivers have similar climatic conditions and biological characteristics. The watersheds of these rivers are predominantly in the coastal plain, either the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain or the Floridian. These estuaries are associated with major river systems and have a relatively smaller proportion of the watershed covered by wetlands compared to the Western Gulf Coast sites.Western Gulf Coast River-Dominated (209 sites)This shoreline region consists of river-dominated estuarine systems in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain and Mississippi Alluvial Plain ecoregions. Sites in this shoreline region receive significant inflows of freshwater as a result of an extensive upstream watershed that if unimpaired contributes a substantial load of suspended sediments. These estuaries are associated with major river systems, and the lower watersheds of these river systems have extensive wetlands such as the Atchafalaya Swamp, the largest wetland in the US. The dominant feature of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain ecoregion is the Mississippi River, which drains about 40% of the continental US.Open Bay (197 sites)This shoreline region is only found in Florida and consists of bays that are directly open and connected to the ocean. This region is underlain by a broad and shallow shelf with a limestone surface and is characterized by low wave activity, negligible sediment inputs, and a tide-dominated environment. The predominant coastal habitat is extensive open-water salt marsh with large offshore seagrass beds. Due to a lack of sediment, there are no barrier islands north of Anclote Key in Florida. The Big Bend coast of Florida, north of Anclote Key to Ochlockonee Bay typifies this region. The shoreline regions are geographic areas where the coasts and estuaries are dominated by a set of processes and geomorphology, but not every site within a CSR necessarily reflects the dominant type. The regions typically include a range of variation including small river-dominated sites and a few lagoon-like sites where sand accumulates. REFERENCESAnderson, M.G., Barnett, A., Clark, M., Prince, J., Olivero Sheldon, A., & Vickery, B. 2016. Resilient and Connected Landscapes for Terrestrial Conservation. The Nature Conservancy, Eastern Conservation Science, Eastern Regional Office. Boston, MA.Bianchi, T.S., Pennock, J.R., & Twilley, R.R. 1999. Biogeochemistry of Gulf of Mexico estuaries. John Wiley & Sons.Engle, V D., Macauley, J.M., Summers, J.K., & Bourgeois, P. 1999. Ecological condition of estuaries in the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/620/R-98/004.Madden, C. J., Goodin, K., Allee, R.J., Cicchetti, G., Moses, C., Finkbeiner, M. & Bamford, D. 2009. Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard. NOAA and NatureServe. 107 pp.National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 2007. Coastal Assessment Framework (CAF). NOAA/NOS Special Projects Office - Coastal Geospatial Data Project. Silver Spring, MD. http://web.archive.org/web/20130213215440/http://coastalgeospatial.noaa.gov/data_gis.html.Watershed Boundary Dataset for the United States. Available URL: "http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov" Accessed September 2016. Coordinated effort between the United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) was created from a variety of sources from each state and aggregated into a standard national layer for use in strategic planning and accountability.

Copyright Text: The Nature Conservancy reserves all rights in data provided. All data are provided as is. This is not a survey quality dataset. The Nature Conservancy makes no warranty as to the currency, completeness, accuracy or utility of any specific data. This disclaimer applies both to individual use of the data and aggregate use with other data. It is strongly recommended that careful attention be paid to the contents of the metadata file associated with these data.

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Last Edit Date: 4/2/2025 9:32:41 PM

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