USGS and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance 

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2009-3059 (Revised) 

September 2012

The USGS and the Gulf of Mexico

knowledge, and tools required to 

facilitate management decisions 

that promote restoration, increase 

coastal resilience, and mitigate risks 

associated with both artificial and 

natural hazards. 

The Gulf of Mexico Alliance 

(www.gulfofmexicoalliance.org)

is a partnership of the States of 

Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, 

Mississippi, and Texas. It is 

supported by 13 Federal agencies, 

including the Department of 

Interior, which is represented by its 

coastal bureaus—Bureau of Ocean 

Energy Management, National Park 

Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, 

The U.S. Geological Survey 

(USGS) is committed to mapping, 

monitoring, and conducting 

research in the Gulf of Mexico 

and adjacent watersheds. Through 

a network of science centers in 

the five Gulf States and across 

the Nation, the USGS applies its 

biologic, geologic, geographic, and 

hydrologic expertise to provide 

unbiased scientific findings to 

decision makers, particularly 

members and supporters of the 

Gulf of Mexico Alliance (the 

Alliance). The overarching goal of 

USGS Gulf Coast activities is to 

provide the scientific information, 

and USGS. The overall goal of 

the Alliance is to significantly 

increase regional collaboration 

that will enhance the ecological 

and economic health of the Gulf 

of Mexico. The Alliance has 

identified six priority issues of 

regional significance that can be 

effectively addressed through 

coordinated activities at local, 

State, and Federal levels: water 

quality, habitat conservation and 

restoration, ecosystems integration 

and assessment, nutrients and 

nutrient impact, coastal community 

resilience, and environmental 

education and outreach.
The Alliance’s habitat conservation and restoration goals are to engage a diverse 

group of stakeholders to restore and conserve critical habitat, improve policies that promote 

conservation and restoration efforts, provide improved conservation and restoration 

management tools, and develop and implement an accurate tracking system to document 

gains and losses of Gulf habitats and ecosystem services.

Related USGS research and monitoring efforts include the following:

•	 Wetland loss, restoration, mitigation, and adaptation strategies studies

•	 Ecosystem-based, adaptive management approaches to conservation

•	 Ecosystem modeling and forecasting

•	 Sediment flux and sand resources research

•	 Hurricane impacts on habitats and species

•	 Connections and dependencies among species and habitats

•	 Process studies that lead to understanding resilience of

natural, altered, and restored habitats

The Alliance’s goal for water quality is to provide critical water quality information to Gulf 

of Mexico resource managers to reduce risk of exposure to disease-causing pathogens, minimize 

occurrence and effects of harmful algal blooms, identify sources of mercury in Gulf seafood, 

and improve monitoring of Gulf water resources. The USGS monitors freshwater inflow and 

provides real-time data on the Web (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis).

Other USGS water quality research and monitoring efforts include the following:

•	 Coastal hydrology

•	 Environmental history (paleoecology)

•	 Saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers

•	 Sources and flux of contaminants, including uptake by fish and wildlife

•	 Harmful algal blooms

•	 Hypoxia

Water Quality Water Quality

Habitat Conservation and Restoration Habitat Conservation and Restoration 
The Alliance’s goals for nutrients and nutrient impacts are to design a regional 

process for comparing nutrient criteria across coastal and estuarine waters, develop 

and implement strategies that reduce nutrient inputs and hypoxia, establish a 

comprehensive ecosystem approach to manage nutrient inputs and reduce impacts 

to coastal ecosystems, and increase the capacity of gulf coastal communities so that 

nutrient impacts are better managed and reduced. A key contribution from USGS 

research to the Alliance partners is information that improves the understanding of 

ecosystem structure and function. Additionally, the USGS has developed the Spatially 

Referenced Regressions On Watershed Attributes (SPARROW) model for the Gulf of 

Mexico (http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/sparrow/gulf_findings). 

Other USGS research and monitoring efforts include the following:

•	 Relationships of land use, water use, nutrient sources, loading,

and eutrophication 

•	 Impacts to fish and wildlife 

•	 Wastewater and stormwater management and nutrient-reduction strategies 

•	 Reconstruction of historical low-oxygen or hypoxic events 

•	 Water quality and nutrient assessment and monitoring in watersheds

and estuaries around the Gulf

The Alliance’s goals for ecosystems integration and assessment are to develop 

regional data systems that contain environmental and economic data, establish 

strategic partnerships to fill environmental and ecological data gaps, and provide 

ecosystem decision-support tools to address priority issues within the Gulf. The 

USGS conducts research to improve our understanding of ecosystems and to predict 

ecosystem change, especially related to climate variability and change. 

Related USGS research and monitoring efforts include the following:

•	 High-resolution topographic and bathymetric mapping 

•	 Coastal erosion, accretion, and subsidence 

•	 Ecosystem modeling, including sea-level rise

•	 Barrier island evolution 

•	 Habitat quality, quantity, and landscape change 

•	 Dynamics of wetlands, coastal forests, mangroves, and seagrasses

as influenced by natural and anthropogenic stressors 

•	 Invasive species 

•	 Distribution, abundance, and population biology of fish and wildlife,

including threatened and endangered species

Nutrients and Nutrient Impacts Nutrients and Nutrient Impacts 

The Emergent Wetlands Status 

and Trends in the Northern Gulf of 

Mexico: 1950-2010 report (http://gom.

usgs.gov/GOMEmWetStatusTrends.

aspx) will provide scientists, managers, 

and citizens with valuable baseline 

information on the status and trends 

of emergent wetlands along the coast 

of the Gulf of Mexico. This study 

examines the emergent wetlands of eight 

individual estuarine areas within the 

northern Gulf of Mexico region, as well 

as presenting statewide summaries for 

Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, 

and Florida. This report addresses 

background information for each State 

and estuarine area, the methodology 

employed to analyze and document 

the historical trends and current status 

of emergent wetlands, current status 

and historical trends of estuarine and 

palustrine emergent wetlands, causes 

of status change, emergent wetlands 

mapping and monitoring, and restoration 

and enhancement activities and needs.

Emergent Wetlands

Status and Trends 

Ecosystems Integration and Assessment Ecosystems Integration and Assessment
The Alliance’s goals for coastal community resilience are to provide enhancements for coastal 

communities, ecosystems, and economies to become more resilient to coastal hazards; increase 

the understanding of coastal hazards risks; incorporate state-of-the-art mitigation methods for 

reducing risks and enhancing resilience; and encourage adoption of new methods of risk mitigation 

and resilience. The USGS Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) Ecosystem Change and Hazard 

Susceptibility project (http://ngom.usgs.gov) is designed to determine the evolution of coastal 

ecosystems on the northern Gulf Coast, the impact of human activities on these ecosystems, and 

the vulnerability of these ecosystems and human communities to more frequent and more intense 

hurricanes in the future.

Other USGS research and monitoring efforts include the following:

•	 Storm surge, inundation, and wind-field monitoring and modeling 

•	 High-resolution maps that track changes in bathymetry, shorelines,

topography, and other landscape features 

•	 Hurricane impacts on coastal infrastructure, coastal habitats, barrier islands,

and fish and wildlife populations 

•	 Integrated models and forecasting tools that link shoreline processes with

ecosystem structures and functions 

•	 Development of alternative futures and associated management options

Coastal Community Resilience Coastal Community Resilience

Environmental Education and Outreach Environmental Education and Outreach

The Alliance’s goal for environmental education and outreach is to increase both awareness and 

stewardship of Gulf Coast resources through targeted education projects and public awareness. The USGS 

has several offices that perform outreach related to the Gulf with activities such as science and media 

seminars, job shadowing, classroom presentations, and special events like National Wetlands Day. 

More information can be found at the following Web sites:

•	 National Wetlands Research Center (www.nwrc.usgs.gov)

•	 LaCoast, an outreach Web site of the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and

Restoration Act (http://lacoast.gov)

•	 Southeast Ecological Science Center (http://fl.biology.usgs.gov/)

•	 St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/)

•	 Water Resources of the United States, a Web site that provides access to the

Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and

Texas Water Science Centers (http://water.usgs.gov) For more information, contact

Alyssa Dausman

USGS Gulf Coast Science Coordination Office

228-688-2530

adausman@usgs.gov

Kate Spear

USGS National Wetlands Research Center

337-266-8645

speark@usgs.gov

USGS and the Gulf of Mexico

http://gom.usgs.gov