That's why coral communities are sensitive indicators of water quality and the ecological health of the coastal watershed.

They respond to alterations within the entire coastal watershed, such as changes in freshwater flows and nutrient inputs.

Pollution of coastal watersheds poses a threat to the existence of coral reefs.

Impacts can result from activities occurring near the reef itself or from areas within the coastal watershed that drain to the reef.

You can do several things to help protect coral reefs and your coastal watershed:

Learn about coral reefs and their importance to your coastal watershed.

The coastal watershed has several parts.

NCCF is also monitoring proposals which could allow for oil and gas explorations across the coastal watersheds.

They also discovered that atmospheric deposition was the biggest single source of human-derived nitrogen in the Eastern United States coastal watershed.

Exceptions to this rule are areas of permanently enriched nutrients such as upwelling areas and coastal watersheds.