Study looking at how urbanization may influence biological processes in the sound. We've elected to use forage fish as our biological endpoint--specifically surf smelt and sand lance--because they are so tied to the nearshore environment. They are obligate upper intertidal spawners. Changes to the nearshore environment could affect the spawning opportunity or success for these species. We are sampling the beach material to see if we find forage fish eggs, and are recording the physical attributes of the beaches, including things such as shade, slope, woody debris, distance to freshwater, armored or not, and the condition of the land upland of the beach (modified or natural). Our hope is to be able to eventually develop a predictive model to help us walk out onto a beach and make a prediction (based on some beach attributes) of the probability of forage fish spawning there. The interdisciplinary team includes geologists, water specialists, and geographers. This effort is part of a larger USGS program called CHIPS--Coastal Habitats in Puget Sound. The website for the CHIPS program is http://puget.usgs.gov/, and you can read more about our efforts there


3 year study of 20 sites

http://puget.usgs.gov/