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CICEET progress report for the period of 8/1/00
to 1/31/01
Project Title:
Identification and Assessment of Anthropogenic Eutrophication
in Shallow Estuaries
Principal Investigator (s):
Ivan Valiela
I. Work Accomplishments
A. Tasks for the Period.
Continue work in monthly coverage of Waquoit Bay sites for
complete seasonal coverage and assessment of inter-annual differences.
We have continued the monthly sampling for Waquoit Bay (nutrients,
phytoplankton chlorophyll, and production of major producers)
and will schedule to return to Great Bay this coming spring/summer
to fill in the rest of the seasonal coverage.
Dr Just Cebrian has arranged with Lee Edmiston (ANERR) for
two weeks in March for the next sampling trip to Apalachicola.
The next step for us is to apply of the Waquoit Bay Nitrogen
Loading model to these other systems (Great Bay, Apalachicola
Bay, and Weeks Bay). In addition we have just received the 3rd
portion of our isotope data for Waquoit Bay. We this new isotope
data we intend to test the isotope approach as a detector of
incipient eutrophication to all of the estuaries and predictor
of N load. We have planned that this part of the project will
take us into the end of this third year of funding.
B. Work Plan to Accomplish Tasks.
We will complete the field sampling component of this project
by the next reporting period. In the mean time we will continue
to synthesize the data for the nitrogen loading model applicability
and the isotope approach.
C. Concerns or Difficulties.
We have had some difficulty getting the different components
necessary in order to run NLM. We have just mad contact with
the GIS coordinator, Fay Rubin and have discussed the materials
we will need to run NLM.
D. Anticipated Success in Meeting Project Objectives in Scheduled
Project Period.
E. Preliminary data
Isotope data for Great Bay, Apalachicola Bay, and Waquoit Bay
are in hand. The data encompasses a broad range of isotopic
values and suggest a predictable relationship between produce
d15N and N load. We have
tried to use previous N load values for the New Hampshire sites
but the isotope data suggests we need to recalculate the load
to Oyster River, NH to make sure we include groundwater inputs,
this recalculation would move the Oyster River points to the
right, and if so, improving the relationship depicted. It appears
at least from these initial comparisons, that the method is
quite successful at detecting incipient eutrophication.
II. Tasks and Activities for the Next Report Period.
A. Tasks for the Next Report Period.
We anticipate completing the field component of this project
and continuing with the synthesis component.
B. Work Plan to Accomplish Tasks.
- Determine the diversity and abundance of submerged aquatic
vegetation (SAV) across a grid of stations in Weeks Bay. We
will do this based on preliminary surveys where well-defined
subparcels within the Bay (such as the mouths of Magnolia and
Fish Rivers) will be identified.
- Quantify chlorophyll, nitrate and ammonium concentrations
in the water column in number of stations in Weeks Bay and continue
to sample Apalachicola embayments.
- Assess phytoplankton and SAV (seagrasses and macroalgae) production
in Weeks Bay and continue in Apalachicola Bay.
- Collect water, phytoplankton and SAV samples for isotopic
analyses
C. Concerns or Difficulties
We do not anticipate any concerns of difficulties in the work
plan discussed. We still have concerns regarding the applicability
of the WBNLM to these other systems that are mainly dominated
by river inputs. We are going ahead and making the model calculations
and will have to further assess the applicability at the time
when we have the appropriate GIS information and model results.
III. Expenditures
We are on track as far as budgeting in concerned. We are supporting
2 graduate students (6 mo, 12 mo) and part of Valiela’s salary
(1.5 mo). We have transferred funds to DISL for Cebrian to continue
work in the southern sites.
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