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The NOAA Center of Excellence for Oceans and Human Health Initiative (OHHI) at the Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML) is developing a data management framework that supports an integrated research program across scientific disciplines. The primary focus of the database is to support environmental research focused on tidal creek watershed systems. Specifically, the current data holdings include physical water quality parameters, nutrients, pathogens, chemical contaminants, benthic and nekton species abundances and human dimensions data from Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina dating to 1994. These data are not from a single long-term research project but are derived from several state and federal research programs and integrated into a common database model to support current research being conducted under the OHHI program at HML. The Tidal Creek database was developed with the intent to support a well documented and open system, thus metadata elements from common metadata standards including the Dublin Core ISO 15836:2003 and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC-STD-001-1998) are components of the database model. The result is a semantic database framework with descriptive ancillary data at the record level including methods, investigator names, date, locations and other descriptive elements. The primary users of the database are project personnel to meet analytical needs. The database is also available through a number of web-based applications that are designed to give users the necessary information to evaluate and access data. In addition, data can be accessed with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards, and species records and abundances are being made available to the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). Overall, the Tidal Creek database summarizes the response of tidal creeks and watersheds to coastal development, and serves as a repository for environmental, demographic, and socioeconomic data in the Southeast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-three headwater tidal creeks draining watersheds representative of forested, suburban, urban, and industrial land cover were sampled along the South Carolina coast from 1994 to 2002 to: (1) evaluate the degree to which impervious land cover is an integrative watershed-scale indicator of stress; (2) synthesize and integrate the available data on linkages between land cover and tidal creek environmental quality into a conceptual model of the responses of tidal creeks to human development; and (3) use the model to develop recommendations for conserving and restoring tidal creek ecosystems. The following parameters were evaluated: human population density, land use, impervious cover, creek physical characteristics, water quality, sediment chemical contamination and grain size characteristics, benthic chlorophyll a levels, porewater ammonia concentration, fecal coliform concentration, and macrobenthic and nekton population and community characteristics.The conceptual model was developed and used to identify the linkages among watershed-scale stressors, physical and chemical exposures, and biological responses of tidal creeks to human development at the watershed scale. This model provides a visual representation of the manner in which human population growth is linked to changes in the physiochemical environment and ultimately the nursery habitat function of tidal creeks and the safety of seafood harvested from headwater tidal creeks. The ultimate stressor on the tidal creek ecosystem is the human population density in the watershed and associated increases in the amount of impervious land cover. Measurable adverse changes in the physical and chemical environment were observed when the impervious cover exceeded 10–20% including altered hydrography, changes in salinity variance, altered sediment characteristics, increased chemical contaminants, and increased fecal coliform loadings. Living resources responded when impervious cover exceeded 20–30%. The impacts on the living resources included reduced abundance of stress-sensitive macrobenthic taxa, reduced abundance of commercially and recreationally important shrimp, and altered food webs. Headwater tidal creeks appear to provide early warning of ensuing harm to larger tidal creeks, tidal rivers and estuaries, and the amount of impervious cover in a watershed appears to be an integrative measure of the adverse human alterations of the landscape. Through education and community involvement, a conservation ethic may be fostered that encourages the permanent protection of lands for the services they provide. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]