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News Archives 2002 January | May | July | Sept | Dec
• Ingle elected as S.C. Sea Grant board chair
• Coastal erosion workshops
S.C. Sea Grant Board of Directors elects Ingle as chair
Dr. Ronald R. Ingle, president of Coastal Carolina University, has been elected chair of the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium’s Board of Directors. Ingle begins his one-year term on Jan. 1, 2002.
Ingle, a South Carolina native, is Coastal Carolina University’s first president. Prior to his appointment at Coastal Carolina, he was associate dean of the College of Applied and Professional Sciences at the University of South Carolina-Columbia. A tenured professor of psychology, Ingle has published numerous professional articles.
“The work conducted through the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium is integral
to the future of our state,” Ingle said. “It is critical that we join
hands across South Carolina to identify, preserve, and protect the environments
and cultural treasures which are unique to the coastal areas of South Carolina.
I am particularly proud that Coastal Carolina University has been involved in
these important activities since 1993.”
Workshop highlights coastal erosion study research
Two workshops were held recently to update city planners, resource managers and elected officials in coastal South Carolina and Georgia on the progress of the Coastal Erosion Study. The first workshop was held on October 11 at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography in Savannah, Georgia and the second workshop was held at Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach on October 18. As part of the outreach component of the study, the workshops allowed researchers to present posters, explain research techniques and answer questions about the current phase of the ten-year study. Attendees included city and county planners and engineers, resource managers, elected officials and others interested in coastal environment issues.
In 1994 the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium, in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, began the Coastal Erosion Study, which is designed to improve understanding of the processes that affect the changing South Carolina and Georgia coastline. Phase I, completed in 1999, focused on the mid-section of coastal South Carolina. Phase II expands the research to include remaining portions of the South Carolina coast as well as the northern Georgia coast.
Researchers are studying offshore and nearshore geology, location of sand sources for potential beach renourishment, historical movement of the shoreline and sediment volume and transport rates. The goal of the Coastal Erosion Study is to examine how historical geology and present-day physical processes of the area influence coastal erosion patterns and the location of offshore sediment sources. Researchers will compile this information into an internet-based Geographic Information System database that will be available to resource managers, consultants and educators. Outreach and education components of the study will translate the scientific findings into programs and products for all levels of education, from K-12 through college/university. Researchers will continue to hold workshops and provide other information resources to planners and policymakers to promote a better understanding of the coastal environment.
Current partners include: S.C. Sea Grant Consortium; U.S. Geological Survey; S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control – Office of Coastal and Resource Management; NOAA – Coastal Services Center; Minerals Management Service; Offices of the State Geologist in South Carolina and Georgia; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Researchers on the project represent Coastal Carolina University; College of Charleston; Clemson University; University of South Carolina; Skidaway Institute of Oceanography; Georgia Southern University; and State University of West Georgia.
• Hurricane test houses to be chosen on Carolina coast
• Consortium receives National Sea Grant Award for 2002-2003
• USC student wins Sullivan Science and Engineering
Fellowship
Hurricane test houses to be chosen on Carolina coast
During the next year, five single-family homes along the South Carolina coast will be retrofitted using up-to-date hurricane-resistant techniques and outfitted with special monitoring devices to capture valuable information about the intense wind pressures of major hurricanes.
Sea Grant researcher Tim Reinhold, a Clemson University civil engineering professor, and his colleagues have been working on a multi-year program to learn how to make houses more resistant to strong winds. They are gathering evidence on how houses retrofitted with wind-protection techniques withstand real-life hurricane wind conditions.
“We hope to learn which retrofit techniques will enable a house to survive during a category 3 hurricane or greater,” says Reinhold.
For this project, the researchers will pick five houses, spaced at least 15 to 30 miles apart, along the South Carolina coast from the Savannah River to Little River. The structures must be on the mainland in elevated areas that do not flood during hurricanes. As a result, the house won’t be washed away by the storm surge and measurements of wind can be made.
Each of the five chosen houses will be inspected and analyzed. Suggestions will be made on what hurricane-mitigation improvements are expected to be most effective. Some of the costs for retrofitting the houses will be supported by a sister research study. Mitigation efforts can include attaching the roof sheathing better with additional screws and adhesive, and adding approved shutters and hurricane straps.
On each house, the engineers will set up a wind monitoring system, screwing twenty-eight brackets for wind-pressure sensors onto roofs, walls, and attics. Two days before a storm is expected to make landfall, the engineers will install the sensors, plus anemometers to measure wind speed over the roof. The Clemson engineers have already outfitted twenty homes in Florida with similar devices, including ten on the East Coast and ten on the Gulf of Mexico. So far, none of the homes have been hit directly by a major storm.
Once all of the sensors are in place, the researchers will wait for a storm to strike. With these devices, the researchers can learn more about wind pressures on particular homes and the possible benefits of retrofitting measures.
Reinhold and his colleagues have previously studied wind pressures in the laboratory. And they have torn apart flood-damaged houses in Horry County to compare strengths of retrofitted and non-retrofitted roofs and walls. With this information, they have collaborated with Applied Research Associates of Raleigh, N.C., on an engineering and cost-benefit analysis of various hurricane-mitigation measures that are likeliest to enhance the performance of homes in particular geographic areas.
Reinhold hopes that the project houses along the coast will provide a rich source of data about retrofitting techniques. “When we get a storm that actually hits some of these retrofitted houses, we can evaluate how much better they perform versus houses that were not retrofitted.” Then researchers could provide better advice about which construction techniques are most cost-effective in reducing storm damage in coastal areas.
Don’t look for simple answers applicable to everyone on the coast, however. “There’s no single answer to retrofitting a house for a high-wind environment,” he says. “You have to look at how each house is built, and what its problems are, and develop solutions for that particular location and house.”
Consortium receives national Sea Grant Award for 2002-2003
The National Sea Grant College Program has awarded $1.6 million to the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium to support its research, extension, communications, and education efforts for 2002-03. Fourteen research and education projects have received funding to examine a number of marine and coastal-resource needs.
Coastal Ocean Studies
• In a continuing study, Paul Work of Clemson University and George Voulgaris
of the University of South Carolina (USC) examine potential beach-nourishment
“borrow” sites. The investigators will identify and characterize beach-nourishment
materials in nearshore areas, which could be dredged and pumped onto beaches.
• Voulgaris will also work on a study to examine the relationship between
an offshore sand shoal in the Myrtle Beach area and coastal erosion dynamics.
He will characterize and quantify the potential for the shoal to be a sustainable
“borrow” site for beach nourishment.
Ecosystem Dynamics
• Amy Ringwood of the S.C. Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) will continue studies on methods of testing and validating promising cellular biomarkers. This study has the potential to yield tools that will identify individuals and populations of two common estuarine bivalve species, the oyster Crassostrea virginica and marsh mussel Geukensia demissa, which are experiencing chronic stress.
• In an ongoing study, James T. Morris of USC and colleagues will refine a model of plant succession of tidal freshwater wetlands on the Cooper River, South Carolina. The researchers will continue examining former rice fields, which are changing rapidly due to human intervention. Information from this project will be provided to state and federal natural resource agencies as they address management of impoundments.
• Joseph Staton of USC and colleagues will use the copepod Amphiascus tenuiremis as an estuarine model, aiming to understand the potential risk of a new pesticide, and develop a monitoring tool for fipronil, a newly approved and highly toxic pesticide. Fipronil is being used in areas adjacent to estuarine systems in South Carolina, such as golf courses.
• Timothy Shaw and Thomas Chandler of USC will develop exposure-toxicity risk assessment tools based on the bioaccumulation of heavy metals in the benthic foraminiferan Ammonia becarii, and toxic response of the common benthic copepod, Amphiascus tenuiremis. Ultimately, coastal managers could use information gathered during this study to better determine new approaches to toxic site cleanup.
• Willard Moore of USC will address the effects on coastal water quality and ecosystem health resulting from coastal land-use change. This research project, a joint effort with Georgia Sea Grant, will determine the nutrient flux of groundwater and impacts on various biological processes in tidal creek waters in the Satilla River (Ga.) system. The proposed work will provide answers to basic questions about coastal ecosystem health, and complements the Consortium’s Land Use-Coastal Ecosystem Study (LU-CES), funded by the NOAA Coastal Ocean Program.
Climate and Hazards
• Timothy Reinhold of Clemson University will characterize the wind structure in hurricanes and the associated wind loading of buildings. He will also evaluate performance of retrofit technologies in reducing hurricane wind damage and losses. This research could improve the ability of government and industry to establish cost-effective mitigation measures.
Emerging Technologies
• In a continuing project, Laszlo Marton of USC expects to pave the way for a genetically engineered Spartina alterniflora plant, which can be used to absorb pollutants in estuarine and marsh habitats. Such improved transgenic plants would be used for soil or water bioremediation in coastal sites.
• Joseph Quattro of USC and a colleague will use the inland silverside, Menidia beryllina, as an estuarine “sentinel species.” The researchers will study theoretical and empirical population genetics to determine chronic and subtle effects of pollutants on marine and estuarine resources. One product will be genetic assays to identify exposure levels of contaminants of concern in South Carolina.
• Paul Gross and Jonas Almeida of the Medical University of South Carolina will lay the groundwork for new methods and technologies to examine environmental stresses and disease using the Atlantic white shrimp, Litopenaeus setiferus, as a model organism. The researchers will also train new researchers, particularly graduate students, in the new and emerging technologies associated with “eco-genomics.”
Sustainable Economic Development
• Red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus, is South Carolina’s most popular coastal recreational fish, but the fishery is in severe decline. Theodore Smith of DNR and colleagues will attempt various culture techniques for red drum broodstock for stocking of Murrells Inlet, S.C. The researchers will track the release of nearly half a million of the sport fish each year of the study, determining the overall stocking program’s effectiveness in various juvenile habitats.
• A research team led by Charles Weirich of DNR will examine the potential of new technologies in shrimp production systems, which could enhance future expansion and development of the U.S. commercial shrimp-farming industry. The researchers will evaluate selected biological and mechanical filtration technologies for their potential use in zero-exchange, biosecure, super-intensive shrimp production systems.
Marine Education
• In an ongoing COASTeam project, Leslie Sautter of the College of Charleston
and colleagues at the S.C. Aquarium will develop and implement a marine and
aquatic science education curriculum aligned to the state Science Curriculum
Standards at each elementary grade level.
USC student wins Sullivan Science and Engineering
Fellowship
Amanda LaZar of Mt. Pleasant, S.C. is the 2002-03 winner of the Kathryn D.
Sullivan Science and Engineering Fellowship, sponsored by the S.C. Space Grant
Consortium and the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium.
A mechanical engineer major at the University of South Carolina, LaZar is studying
materials science and materials processes. She hopes to have a career at NASA
someday.
The Sullivan fellowship is awarded annually to a student of either science or engineering who is a rising senior at a university in South Carolina. The award of $7,000 covers tuition, fees and books.
• Hurricane preparation publications from S.C. Sea
Grant
• S.C. Sea Grant fiscal manager receives MBA
Hurricane preparation publications from S.C. Sea Grant
The S.C. Sea Grant Consortium has the following hurricane preparation publications available free-of-charge to the public:
• Hurricane Preparation Checklist: a flyer containing basic information on hurricane preparations, hurricane emergency supplies that should be on hand and steps to take when deciding to either stay at home or evacuate voluntarily;
• The June 2002 edition of the S.C. Department of Transportation pamphlet on South Carolina’s hurricane evacuation routes. Visit www.dot.state.sc.us/getting/evacuation.html for more information;
• A series of brochures from the S.C. Sea Grant Extension Program on how to protect windows and doors, using structural adhesives to strengthen roof sheathing and how to reduce wind damage when re-roofing;
• Coastal Heritage, Vol. 14, No. 1,“ Storm Front,” details the dangers of storm surges and steps to take to decrease vulnerability to hurricanes; and
• A bulletin to help businesses prepare in the event of a hurricane.
Publications are available on-line at www.scseagrant.org
or through the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium office at 287 Meeting Street, Charleston,
SC, 29401, phone: (843) 727-2078.
S.C. Sea Grant fiscal manager receives MBA
Romeka Selene Washington received a Master of Business Administration from the College of Graduate and Professional Studies at The Citadel. She also has a B.S. in Accounting and Management Science from the University of South Carolina. Washington is currently the fiscal manager at the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium.
The S.C. Sea Grant Consortium is a state agency that maximizes the economic, environmental and educational value of South Carolina’s natural resources through an integrated program of research, education and extension services.
M. Richard DeVoe, executive director of the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium, has been named to the Executive Committee of the Board of Oceans and Atmosphere of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC).
The Board on Oceans and Atmosphere’s primary responsibility is to develop a federal-relations program for issues relating to the marine, ocean, and atmospheric sciences. It works with Congress and federal agencies to advance earth-science research and education. The Board, with more than 200 members, is governed by an executive committee, whose members are distributed regionally and include university presidents, marine and atmospheric scientists, academic deans, and directors of Sea Grant programs.
DeVoe has been with the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium since 1980, serving as associate director from 1987 until his appointment as executive director in 1996. He received graduate degrees in marine biology and marine affairs from City College of New York and University of Rhode Island, respectively.
Robert H. Bacon, program leader of the S.C. Sea Grant Extension Program, has been selected to participate in the 2003 Class of Leadership South Carolina.
Leadership South Carolina was created in 1979 by the Governor’s Office and the South Carolina business community to identify and develop leaders in the state. It attracts individuals from all sectors—civic, business, government, and the professions—who have demonstrated leadership and commitment to their communities and the state. The program includes intensive, three-day sessions on subjects such as the economy, education, the environment, social issues, and quality of life.
Susan L. Fox, nominated by the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium, has received a Coastal Management Fellowship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center. Fox is completing a M.S. degree in the University of Charleston’s program in environmental studies.
The Coastal Management fellowship provides on-the-job education and training opportunities for postgraduate students in coastal management programs and also provides technical assistance for these programs.
During her fellowship, Fox is working with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Long Island Sound Programs, on a project titled, “Public Access to Coastal Environments.” Fox will develop a comprehensive GIS database of coastal access sites and potential sites for acquisition. This will be used to help the state organize, analyze, and share information about public access to coastal environments in the state.
In June, Land Use-Coastal Ecosystem Study (LU-CES) principal investigators, graduate students, and user-panel members gathered at Spring Island, S.C., to review the study’s progress and discuss future research plans.
LU-CES—a five-year, multidisciplinary research and outreach program funded by the NOAA Coastal Ocean Program, S.C. Sea Grant, and Georgia Sea Grant—examines how land-use change affects marine resources.
Now in their second year of field research, LU-CES researchers are working to develop science-based predictive, decision-making tools that show how development patterns affect water supplies, movement of nutrients and pollutants, and ecosystem functions of wetlands and other resources, among other issues. These tools could eventually assist planners improve coastal resource management.
Currently funded research areas, focused on the salt marsh complexes of the Okatee River watershed in South Carolina and the Satilla River system in Georgia, include:
“LU-CES comprises the best and brightest researchers in South Carolina and Georgia,” says Rick DeVoe, co-principal investigator and executive director of the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium. “This study will yield tremendous, cohesive scientific information in a format that decision-makers can understand and use. Those who are involved with land-use policy will be able to make informed, scientifically-supported decisions.”
Education and outreach products are planned, including a book examining human impacts of development on coastal ecosystems. An interactive LU-CES Web site is a data and information hub to facilitate the exchange of data, findings, and relevant products among participating scientists and with resource managers and community leaders responsible for making land-use decisions.
State-of-Knowledge reports can be accessed from the Web site, and presentations will be given to planners, engineers, natural resource managers, and municipal officials. There will also be a special session about the LU-CES program at an upcoming meeting of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography.
“LU-CES is partly about collecting scientific information in new and focused ways, but it is also about how the information is packaged and used,” says Dr. Gary Kleppel, State University of New York professor and LU-CES co-principal investigator. “LU-CES will provide novel flexibility in the area of information delivery that will address the needs and sophistication levels of a variety of users.” For more information, visit http://www.lu-ces.org.
Volunteers clear away tons of trash
September 21 was a beautiful day for the 14th annual Beach Sweep/River Sweep, and thousands of volunteers statewide turned out to help make the environment cleaner and safer.
Nearly 100 site captains and approximately 4,000 volunteers cleared about 15 tons of trash from beaches and waterways in coastal South Carolina. Some debris had been waiting over 50 years to be picked up—volunteers at Battery Creek in Beaufort County hauled 112 old tires out from what used to be a dumping area back in the 1950s! Other items of local concern included:
Cigarette butts are expected to be the number-one item found on the coast, followed by debris associated with beach-going activities (bottles, cans, plastic ware, and fast-food containers), and boating activities (ropes, nets, buoys, and fishing line).
Participants on the coast worked hard to tackle the litter problem in rivers, creeks, and marshes, resulting in more groups than ever before ridding these fragile ecosystems of harmful debris.
Special thanks to Alexandra Simpson, College of Charleston communications student, who helped Susan Ferris, coastal coordinator, organize the Sweep on the coast. Also, thanks to S.C. Sea Grant staffer Susannah Sheldon for coordinating the cleanup on Folly Island.
S.C. Sea Grant Consortium and S.C. Department of Natural Resources organized Beach Sweep/River Sweep 2002. The next Sweep is scheduled for Saturday, September 20, 2003; updates can be found at http://www.scseagrant.org/education.htm.
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The state of South Carolina is seeking nominations for an award to recognize individuals who are doing extraordinary work for the environment.
The S.C. Environmental Awareness Award was established by the S.C. General Assembly during the 1992 legislative session to recognize outstanding contributions made toward the protection, conservation and improvement of South Carolina’s natural resources.
Each year, the public is invited to submit nominations that are then reviewed by an awards committee made up of representatives from the state’s natural resource agencies. In judging nominees, the committee considers excellence in innovation, leadership and accomplishments that influence positive changes affecting the environment.
Members of the selection committee represent the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, S.C. Forestry Commission and S.C. Sea Grant Consortium.
Jim Elliott, founder and executive director of the South Carolina Center for Birds of Prey won the 2001 South Carolina Environmental Awareness Award. Elliott was recognized for his dedication to South Carolina’s environment and his work to conserve and protect raptor resources.
Previous award winners are:
Nominations will be accepted through Dec. 31. To obtain a nomination form or to find out more about the annual award, contact Robin Stephens at the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, EQC Administration, 2600 Bull St, Columbia, SC 29201; telephone: (803) 896-8973; e-mail: stephers@dhec.state.sc.us or Internet on the DHEC Web site: http://www.scdhec.net under “What’s New.”
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This summer S.C. Sea Grant Extension Program specialists Cal Sawyer and Jack Whetstone organized a Harmful Algal Bloom Workshop at NOAA’s Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research (CCEHBR). Several members of the S.C. Task Group on Harmful Algae, chaired by the Consortium’s Executive Director Rick DeVoe, presented their work on harmful algal blooms (HABs) in South Carolina.
The workshop was an outreach component of a grant from NOAA National Ocean Service for the Harmful Algal Bloom Initiative for South Carolina.
After the workshop, attendees took a field trip to Kiawah Island with Norm Shea, Kiawah Island Community Association (KICA) lakes director. Since monitoring began on Kiawah, the golf course ponds have been algal bloom “hot spots” during the summer months. Participants on the field trip observed Susan Wilde with S.C. Department of Natural Resources and University of South Carolina take samples of the blue-green algae, and measure pH and salinity while Shea spoke about KICA’s ecologically sound approach to pond management.
The majority of people surveyed rated the workshop very good or excellent in terms of presentation quality and information usefulness.
As a result of the workshop, environmental horticulturalist Gary Forrester of Clemson Extension in Horry County is now working with the S.C. Phytoplankton Monitoring Network (SCPMN), a volunteer monitoring program directed by Steve Morton of NOAA CCEHBR. Forrester has recruited master gardeners to take water samples in two locations once-a-week in Murrell’s Inlet and Pawley’s Island.
Forrester will examine two samples to check for harmful algae. The master gardeners will learn how to examine samples, report on abundance of harmful algae, and send relevant data to CCEHBR.
Forrester hopes to work with the SCPMN to expand the monitoring network to schools in Horry and Georgetown counties.
Outreach activities such as this workshop are a critical link in communicating scientific research to the people of South Carolina—and enabling citizen involvement in the world of science.
Sea Grant researchers say they can predict the physical impacts of proposed dredging of the ocean bottom for nourishment sand that could be used to build up rapidly eroding beaches at Folly Island, S.C. Engineers hope to prevent further erosion of Folly Island beaches by providing information about the best place to mine for nourishment sand, according to Sea Grant researcher Paul A. Work, a Georgia Tech University civil engineer formerly of Clemson University.
Previous studies have located three areas that may have sediment of sufficient quality and quantity for beach nourishment: Stono Inlet, an area offshore from the Washout, and a band of offshore sand between Stono Inlet and the Washout. Depths range from 20 to 30 feet.
Work and his colleague George Voulgaris, a University of South Carolina geologist, believe that the Stono Inlet site is least likely to cause any negative impacts to Folly Island.
Coastal managers say that there are only three options to address beach erosion. We can retreat, moving houses and hotels back from the oceanfront. We can harden with seawalls and other erosion-control structures, accelerating erosion and risking loss of beaches, which anchor a multibillion-dollar tourism economy. Or we can nourish beaches with sand from the ocean floor.
The third choice, nourishment, is politically and economically practical for some developed beaches, many experts say. In the United States, nourishment projects are almost always favored over building hard structures such as seawalls. In South Carolina, seawalls are prohibited.
But finding the best location to dredge for nourishment projects is difficult. Today, governments and communities cannot draw sand from the ocean floor until they study the possible negative impacts of dredging and pumping onto beaches. In addition to physical impacts, biological impacts are often a major concern. Engineers consider three primary factors in searching for nourishment sand, said Work.
First, a source of sand has to be close enough to the beachfront to be economically feasible. In South Carolina, large sand deposits exist several miles from land, but using them for nourishment projects is very expensive. That’s why engineers usually look for the appropriate nourishment sand in the nearshore ocean bottom. Second, nourishment sand must be a suitable grain size, at least as coarse as the native beach. If the sand’s grain size is too small, then ocean waves and currents will wash it away. Third, “the source of sand has to be far enough away from the beach so that you don’t modify currents and waves, which can negatively affect the beach after the ocean bottom is dredged,” said Work. “You don’t want to choose a place to dredge that’s going to make your erosion problem worse. If you take the sand from an inappropriate location too close to the beach, the sand you take out might go right back into the hole.”
But negative impacts from a dredging project can be subtler than that. “When you dig a hole, you can modify the waves that are reaching the beach. You can change the direction of the waves. And the hole can act like a lens does for light – concentrating the waves at a place along the beach, causing erosion there. If you change wave height and direction, then the rate at which sediments move along the beach will change as well. Depending on how you modify the waves, you can make erosion hot spots.”
The researchers have created a numerical computer model of existing currents and waves and other erosion processes at Folly Island. To test their model, they have compared it to existing field measurements collected as part of a previous project. The engineers then used their numerical model to simulate a dredge hole at the three potential borrow sites near Folly Island and their possible effects on the beachfront.
If dredging proceeds at one of the potential borrow sites off Folly Island, researchers can compare their numerical model to what actually occurred on the beach. If the model and reality correspond, then this approach could be applied to other sites and could reveal the suitability of offshore borrow sites for nourishment material up and down the South Carolina coast.
“If we can simulate what happens in the field at Folly Island, then we can trust our model for making predictions of what happens on other beaches,” said Work.
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