As a fellow,
I was hosted by the Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment/Bio-geography
Branch. The goal of the Branch is to improve ecosystem management by developing
information and analytical capabilities through research, monitoring and
assessment of the distribution and ecology of marine and estuarine organisms
and their habitats. I was assigned to work primarily on three projects based on
my experience and interest. Throughout these projects and my time as a fellow I
was led by wonderful supervisors who assisted and guided me.
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| Ayman with NOAA Administrator Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan |
The first
project was “An Ecological Assessment of the Choptank Complex to Support NOAA’s
Habitat Focus Study Area.” For this, I developed an inventory for a geo-database
of the Choptank watershed. I also mapped the Choptank Water Quality Assessment
and wrote a chapter on Choptank water quality as part of the team report on the
ecological assessment for the Choptank watershed.
The second
project was “Integrating Bio-physical and Socio-economic Metrics to Characterize
and Couple Ecological and Coastal Community Resiliency for the Gulf of Mexico.”
This challenging project uses a multidisciplinary research approach that
includes social and ecological components, to develop a framework to define and
characterize ecosystem and community resiliency. Part of my role was to assist
the team leader in the administrative work. This included writing a proposal,
budget and implementation plan, and preparing agendas for meetings and follow-up
progress reports. I also gathered the environmental and social data for the
study area, which consists of the coastal counties of the Gulf, and processed
and analyzed it. I provided reports on the results from the analysis to the
project team. This project still continues.
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| Ocean Marine Policy Training, Monterey Bay, August 2015 |
For my third
project, I took the lead on “Linking Coral Reef Complexity to Fisheries
Economic Value in the U.S. Virgin Islands: A Tool for Coral Reef Prioritization.”
The project objective is to quantify and map the economic fisheries value of
coral reefs in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, based on the distribution of
observed fish biomass across the seascape. Additionally, the project will
quantify the relationship between the direct economic value of observed fish
biomass and the topographic complexity and benthic composition of hard-bottom
habitat. This work will help in the development of a predictive model for the value
of commercial fish across the seascape of St. Croix.
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| Coral Reef Monitoring Training |
Training was
an important part of my fellowship experience at NOAA. Some of the training —
including communication, facilitation and team-leading skills — I gained from working
with my supervisors and colleagues. Another part included classes and formal
instruction that were essential to my working on these projects. I became more
familiar with ArcGIS (ArcMap), received a NOAA diving certificate, and studied project
design and evaluation.
While a
fellow, I also gave a series of six seminars as part of NOAA/NOS Science
Seminar Series. These helped me communicate my scientific research, experiences
and the lessons I learned in marine conservation and MPAs in the Red Sea. As a
result of all of this, I received a certification of recognition. However, the best
recognition and reward was that I was hired by the Bio-geography Branch as a
marine biologist after my fellowship. Finally, my dream came true and I am
officially working for NOAA!
