CICEET Progress Report for the period 7/30/1999 through 2/14/2000
SEDIMENT ELEVATION DYNAMICS IN TIDAL MARSHES: FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT OF ACCRETIONARY BIOFILTERS
Principal Investigators:
Project leader:
Robert Costanza
Institute for Ecological Economics
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland, P.O. Box 38
Solomons, MD 20688
Co-investigators:
Roelof M. Boumans
Research Scientist at the Institute for Ecological Economics, Chesapeake
Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland, P.O. Box 38 Solomons MD
Phone: 410-326-7281
Fax: 410-326-7354
Email boumans@cbl.umces.edu
Christopher Swarth
Science Coordinator at Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, 1361 Wrighton Rd., Lothian, MD 20711
Phone: 410-741-9330 Fax: 410-741-9346
Email: cswarth@umd5.umd.edu, jugbay@clark.net
David D. Burdick
Assistant Research Professor at the Jackson Estuarine Laboratory,
University of New Hampshire, 85 Adams Point Road, Durham, NH 03824-3406
Phone: 603-862-2175
Fax: 603-862-1101
Email: burdick@christa.unh.edu
and
Donald Cahoon
Senior Scientist at the Wetlands National Research Center, 700 Cajundome Blvd., Lafayette, LA 70506
Phone: 318-266-8500
Email: don_cahoon@usgs.gov
I. Accomplishments
A. Scheduled Tasks
Fall 99:
-Continue monitoring SET stations in NERR sites such as Jug Bay, MD, Prudence Island, RI or Waquoit Bay, MA. and continue monitoring for TSS and nutrients at Jug Bay.
Winter 99:
- Make the SET database on elevation changes searchable through the Internet.
-Organize the effort to visit abandoned or scarcely visited SET stations. Continue to collect historical data sets to add to the database.
B. Progress on Tasks
-Database development
A web site is now available for accessing the database at: http://flock.cbl.umces.edu/SET
The SQL schema has been implemented and CGI scripts have been developed to make it accessible by browsers. At present a query interface allows preliminary searches on a fac-simile dataset. Very soon this database will be populated with real raw data from different research groups. Populating the database will be facilitated by a specific form for data submission available in a preliminary version at our web site.
We presented the data model for our web-accessible database at the SET workshop after the Estuarine Research Federation (ERF) meeting in New Orleans (agenda presented in Box1). We discussed the data sharing and dissemination policies, structural details, and query definition. We were successful in having the key researchers pledge their support for contributing data. To substantiate their pledge we agreed to visit their sites for additional measurements of “historical SET sites, and downloads of data sets.
- Monitoring abandoned SET stations
To organize the task for Monitoring “abandoned” SET stations we contacted Jill Rooth (Graduate student at Horn Point and SET researcher for NERRS Monie Bay). In trade for supply money to test out an experimental design for SET work at Monie Bay, she is now actively involved with our project. Through her effort we have established the itinerary for SET measurements at "old pipes" in the following locations: North Inlet, South Carolina, Cumberland Island, Georgia, and various locations along the Louisiana coast. A travel plan was confirmed with host scientists (Table 2)
Table 1
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A WORKSHOP ON THE SEDIMENTATION-EROSION TABLE
(And Its Use for Evaluating Elevation of Intertidal Sediments) October 1, 1999, 8:30 am - 4 pm, Hotel Inter-Continental, Room: Pelican 2
|
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Table 2
| ITINERARY OF THE TRIP TO VISIT ABANDONED STATIONS |
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- Development of SET standard Operating Procedures and protocol
Although not scheduled for this reporting period, we seized the opportunity of the SET Workshop in New Orleans to develop Standard Operating Procedures. The input received will be used in our future work.
-Experiment Design and Fieldwork
--Jug Bay Field Station
In Jug Bay, MD, Summer and Fall measurement of SET sites were accomplished. In September 1999 we were successfully sampling two tidal cycles over a 24-hour period for sediment fluxes at the north and the south sides of the railroad bed. Samples were processed and stored for further analyses. Our bimonthly samplings to establish a long-term nutrient record in Jug Bay continued.
--New England Field Stations
All SET stations in NH (12) and ME (13) have been sampled this summer and again in the fall. Measurements at all stations in New Hampshire and six in Maine are ongoing since 1995.
As part of this grant and another CICEET grant (Dredging in Wells, Maine), seven new SET stations were established in the Webhannet River Estuary to examine the effects of dredging and road causeways on sedimentation in the marsh. Five SET stations form a gradient from the dredge site to distant, unimpacted marshes. Four stations are located upstream of roadways (impacted stations) and four stations are located downstream of roadways (reference stations).
We established six new stations in three marshes on Prudence Island with the help of the staff of the Prudence Island NERR: Al Beck and Roger Green. One marsh is very pristine and natural the other two are slightly impacted. The two impacted marshes connect the north and south islands of Prudence NERR. The road that connects the two halves of the island runs through the marsh with no culvert, essentially dividing the marsh in two back barrier systems.
We added marker horizons of red glitter and feldspar to all 31 SET stations this fall and measured elevations once again. The data is being entered into spreadsheets for incorporation into the SET database. SET stations will be installed at Waquoit, MA this spring. All SET stations will be measured in April.
--Rookery Bay, Tijuana River and North Inlet/Winyah Bay
Since last August, we have sampled our SET plots at Rookery Bay (August) and Tijuana Slough (November). Jim Morris has continued to sample North Inlet monthly under a cooperative agreement with USGS.
B. Related Projects
C. Difficulties Encountered
Cementing error on two of the Jug Bay Stationary pipes prevented us from measuring those stations. The problems are corrected and the stations will be measured from now on.
D. Anticipated Success in Meeting Project Objectives in Scheduled Project Period
Our project is proceeding as planned, and we feel confident that we will accomplish our major goals, of implementing the SET database and strengthening the NERR SET network.
Preliminary data
In figure 1 we present the first results from our SET measurements at Jug Bay Maryland.
Fig.1
Besides long-term
trends, elevation changes also reflect effects from Hurricane Floyd,
and potentially a seasonal variation in rootmass. The Upstream area,
North of the Jug Bay rail road bed increased significantly in
elevation within the Typha and Scrub Shrub vegetation types. No
significant change occurred in the Spatterdock community, North or
south of the railroad bed (Down stream). Standard error levels could
not be determined for elevation changes in the Down stream Thypha and
Scrub Shrub plant communities.
II. Tasks and activities for next reporting period
A. Tasks for the next reporting period
-Database development
-- Identifying a standard data format for submission through the web page;
-- Populating the database with data from researchers contacted at the SET workshop;
-- Completing the CGI interface to the SQL schema;
-- Updating the web site.
-Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
--SOPs will be finalized and made available on the web.
-Field work
--NERR sites that will be visited for spring measurements are Jug Bay, Great Bay, Wells, Rookery Bay, Tijuana River and North Inlet/Winyah Bay.
--Measurement of the Sediment Filtration Potential will be carried out at Jug Bay.
--Marker Horizons will be installed at all New England sites and at Jug Bay.
--SET stations will be installed at Waquoit, MA late fall or next spring.
B. Work plan to accomplish tasks
-Database development
We will open a discussion on our listserve about data formats with the purpose of identifying a more informative way of collecting data and organizing records in data sets to match the database requirements. For example information about the scope of the project or the institutions involved, which is commonly missing in regular files, could easily become available to allow a more detailed search. Set users will be contacted via e-mail and invited to submit their data through our electronic submission form. We expect to contact SET researchers personally, when we will be measuring abandoned stations.
-Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s)
Insights gained from the October 1999 SET workshop conference, made us realize that SOP’s need to be flexible for differences in habitats (mangroves, seagrasses, mudflats, marshes) and climates (tropical and sub-tropical vs. temperate and subacrtic). A search for operating procedures will be included in the database.
C. Concerns or difficulties
No concerns or difficulties are anticipated.
III. Expenditures
We had underestimated the costs involved with the analyses of nutrients and suspended sediments. The shortage in funds concerned our tidal cycle sampling, but did not apply to the bimonthly sampling at Jug Bay. We have been freezing samples taken this year to be analyzed next year with next year’s funding and the help of Jug Bay Interns.