require development of a common approach to be applied and tested across a wide range of 
coastal receiving water systems. Each NHEERL Ecology Division will need to contribute to this 
process, and to the extent possible identify other soiffces of similar data from receiving waters in 
their region that could be used to improve our understanding of the relationship between nutrient 
loading-DO and the key factors that control that relationship. 
Products 
APM 1C FY02 (GPRA # 165) Minimum dissolved oxygen requirements of aquatic animals in 
the Gulf of Mexico estuaries as a measure of the effect of nutrient enrichment (GED). 
APM 2A FY03 Minimum DO requirements for a suite of the important marine organisms (fish 
and crustaceans) from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico coastal waters of the U.S. 
(AED). 
APM 4A FY03 Propose classification scheme for predicting sensitivity of coastal receiving 
waters to effects of nutrients on DO (MED, AED, GED). 
Benefits of Products 
The benefits of the products to OW will be a reduction in the uncertainty associated with setting 
DO based nutrient criteria and TMDLs for our nation’s receiving waters. Minimum DO 
requirements of important species will provide a sound basis for setting protective limits for DO 
in coastal receiving waters. Development of an improved classification scheme will aid in 
setting nutrient criteria in receiving waters where large historical databases are not available. An 
improved understanding of the factors affecting nutrient DO-response relationships will provide 
water quality managers with better tools to manage nutrient input to our nation’s waters. 
Project Title 2, Development of SA VLoss-Nutrient Load Relationships and Factors which 
Control SAV Response to Nutrients 
Project Coordination and Resources (9.0 FTEs: AED-1.0, GED-4.0, MED-2.0, WED-2.0) 
Objectives 
The objective of this research plan is to develop, for the nations’s coastal receiving waters, 
sufficient understanding of the relationship between SAV loss and nutrient loading (N and P) to 
provide a sound scientific basis for establishment of nutrient criteria that would protect these 
important habitats from degradation or loss and aid in restoration efforts. To do this, a set of 
models will be used to examine how nutrients interact with the physical and biological 
components to affect the health of SAV populations. This work will directly support or interact 
with the habitat alteration research (Section 4) providing basic information on production and 
function of these habitats and diagnostic research (Section 8) by providing nutrient-SAV- 
response relationships. 
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