Marine Environmental Quality (MEQ) Dissolved Oxygen, Eelgrass and Nutrient Monitoring in Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence

Marine Environmental Quality (MEQ) Dissolved Oxygen, Eelgrass and Nutrient Monitoring in Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence The MEQ monitoring program is being implemented in 35-40 estuaries in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence (sGSL) to support the development of a MEQ measure (threshold) to promote efforts to address nutrient enrichment in estuaries. The two main indicators included in the monitoring program are dissolved oxygen and eelgrass coverage which are used to assess the trophic status of estuaries within the region. The two factors most important for impacting the trophic status of estuaries are nitrogen loading and water residence time, i.e., water circulation. If water residence time is long and/or nitrogen loading is high, nutrient impacts are likely. A peer-reviewed manuscript has demonstrated that these two factors are predictive of the dissolved oxygen regime in the upper estuary and that publication successfully used dissolved oxygen to ascribe trophic status to estuaries. In a companion paper it was also determined that nitrogen loading was negatively correlated with eelgrass coverage. These two papers form the basis of the MEQ monitoring program (see attached). 2023-07-13 Fisheries and Oceans Canada Michael.Coffin@dfo-mpo.gc.ca Nature and EnvironmentGulf of St. LawrenceCoastal watersEnvironmental quality Marine Environmental Quality (MEQ) datasetCSV https://github.com/dfo-gulf-science/fgp-datasets/blob/master/99c95064%20(MEQ)/MarineEnvironmentalQuality_Sites_2018_2019.csv?raw=True Marine Environmental Quality (MEQ) mapFGDB/GDB https://github.com/dfo-gulf-science/fgp-datasets/blob/master/99c95064%20(MEQ)/MEQ_sites_2018_2019.gdb.zip?raw=True Marine Environmental Quality (MEQ) mapGEOJSON https://github.com/dfo-gulf-science/fgp-datasets/blob/master/99c95064%20(MEQ)/MarineEnvironmentalQuality_Sites_2018_2019.geojson Data DictionaryCSV https://github.com/dfo-gulf-science/fgp-datasets/blob/master/99c95064%20(MEQ)/DataDictionary_MEQsites_2018_2019.csv Marine Environmental Quality (MEQ) map serviceESRI REST https://gisp.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/arcgis/rest/services/FGP/Marine_Environmental_Quality/MapServer Marine Environmental Quality (MEQ) map serviceESRI REST https://gisp.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/arcgis/rest/services/FGP/Marine_Environmental_Quality/MapServer

The MEQ monitoring program is being implemented in 35-40 estuaries in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence (sGSL) to support the development of a MEQ measure (threshold) to promote efforts to address nutrient enrichment in estuaries. The two main indicators included in the monitoring program are dissolved oxygen and eelgrass coverage which are used to assess the trophic status of estuaries within the region.

The two factors most important for impacting the trophic status of estuaries are nitrogen loading and water residence time, i.e., water circulation. If water residence time is long and/or nitrogen loading is high, nutrient impacts are likely. A peer-reviewed manuscript has demonstrated that these two factors are predictive of the dissolved oxygen regime in the upper estuary and that publication successfully used dissolved oxygen to ascribe trophic status to estuaries. In a companion paper it was also determined that nitrogen loading was negatively correlated with eelgrass coverage. These two papers form the basis of the MEQ monitoring program (see attached).

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Delivery Point: 343 Université Ave

City: Moncton

Administrative Area: New Brunswick

Postal Code: E1C 5K4

Country: Canada

Electronic Mail Address: Monica.Boudreau@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

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