Archive for category: MOCSI

Sea level rise is one of the largest climate-related threats facing our coastal communities. Scientists and engineers at NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) are analyzing water level data from a vast network of tide gauges to better understand these trends.

Recently, Lynker team member, Steve Simon, worked with colleagues at CO-OPS to update their Sea Level Trends website. Steve calculated new relative sea level (RSL) trends for CO-OPS’s long-term water level stations (each with approximately 30 years of observations) throughout the coastal U.S, including trends for a new city: Panama City Beach, Florida. These RSL trends are calculated with respect to a local fixed space on land and combine sea level rise and local vertical land motion. This provides important detailed information at how much the sea level rises at a specific coastal location. The resulting map shows that a majority of gauges experienced an increase in sea level trends in 2019.

Steve’s calculated RSL trends were shared with the Environmental Protection Agency for use as one of their Climate Change indicators. While these trends allude to the challenges of accurately projecting coastal sea levels in an ever-changing global climate, they also yield promising implications regarding how U.S. coastal regions can better approach the uncertainties that come with climate change.

Lynker biologist, Laura Trilles, recently led several Seabird Mitigation and Rescue training sessions for construction workers repairing and paving damaged roads on Kauai.  The threatened and endangered seabirds are attracted to artificial lights, often used by construction crews, by mistake, which causes them to circle the lights confused and then fall to the ground.  Once grounded, these birds have difficulty taking flight on their own.  Two species are of particular concern on Kauai: the Hawaiian Petrel (endangered) and the Newell’s Shearwater (threatened).

The Department of Transportation (DOT) requires a mitigation and training plan be submitted by all companies conducting work that could potentially have a negative impact on the seabirds. Lynker wrote this plan for Grace Pacific, a subsidiary of Alexander and Baldwin, Inc., who is conducting roadwork on Kauai in a known flight corridor of the seabirds. We also provided training sessions on how to minimize interactions with the birds as well as how to rescue the birds once they are grounded. Bird identification, handling and how to report and deliver downed seabirds to a local rescue program called Save Our Shearwaters was included in the training. Lynker offers environmental consulting services to government, commercial and non-profit sectors. Our biologists and scientific writers provide a wide variety of products and services, and our local island presence allows us to act fast and meet tight deadlines.