Program Mission
This is the public Web site for the Defense Coastal/Estuarine Research Program (DCERP) at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The Program's primary goal is to enhance and sustain the military mission by developing an understanding of coastal and estuarine ecosystem composition, structure, and function within the context of a military training environment.
Overarching Research Strategy
RTI's DCERP Team has designed an integrative monitoring, modeling, and research strategy for MCBCL that is consistent with guidance on ecosystem-based management from the Ecological Society of America and recent recommendations from the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, including principles of adaptive management.
Conceptual Model Development
To facilitate the understanding of the ecosystem state and dynamics of the MCBCL region necessary to complete Phase I, the RTI DCERP Team developed an overarching conceptual model for the MCBCL region. This model includes the terrestrial lands of MCBCL, the New River Estuary (NRE), associated coastal wetlands, and the coastal barrier along Onslow Bay, as well as the overarching influence of atmospheric conditions.
Overarching conceptual model for DCERP at MCBCL
Teams
Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International, headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is leading the DCERP research and monitoring effort and has assembled a diverse team of discipline experts with many years of experience working together on coastal/estuarine ecosystem projects.
RTI's DCERP Team includes the Principal Investigator, other environmental scientists from RTI, and researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences, North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Duke University, Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, Virginia Tech, University of South Carolina, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, Beaufort, NC), U. S. Geological Survey (Raleigh, NC, office), Atmospheric Research and Analysis, Inc., and Porter Scientific, Incorporated.
The RTI DCERP Team has been organized into six module teams based on the ecosystem-based management objective for the program. Each module team falls under the direction of a Module Team Leader and Co-leader. These module teams conduct monitoring and research activities for DCERP's five ecosystem modules (Aquatic/Estuarine Module, Coastal Barrier Module, Coastal Wetlands Module, Terrestrial Module, and Atmospheric Module) and Data Management Module.
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