Coastal ecosystems are highly dynamic systems, whose trophic conditions change in response to fresh water discharge, hydrologic forcing, seasonal changes in temperature and solar radiation, or pollution. On decadal and longer time scales, however, processes such as changes in sedimentation, land use in the watersheds, or climate, become increasingly important. Those long-term processes must also be taken into account if management strategies are to be effective in the decades to come. It is, therefore, unlikely that successful environmental management of estuarine systems will be accomplished using only simple, all-purpose indicators or analysis of single stressors. By developing integrative and model-based indicators of estuarine health and habitat sustainability, we can provide valuable research and management tools that could be used to tackle complex management questions.
Our group has a particular emphasis on water quality changes resulting from increased nutrient and sewerage loading.
Eutrophication is a prominent stressor in coastal systems, and is the manifestation of nutrient-enhanced aquatic primary productivity, and indicated by the presence of noxious phytoplankton blooms, bottom water hypoxia, pathogen accumulation, and wetland plant stress, and has been reported from a variety of estuarine and coastal environments (Rosenberg 1985; Andersson & Rydberg 1988).
The estuaries and coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) are classic examples of these eutrophication phenomena (USEPA 1999). The NOAA estuarine eutrophication survey (Bricker et al. 1999) reported periodic hypoxia (< 2 mg O2 l-1) in 31 of 37 GOM estuaries, and anoxia in 21 estuaries.
Concerns for the Barataria and Breton Sound Estuaries targeted for “restoration” by increased inputs of Mississippi river water thus include possible eutrophication and hypoxia in localized areas, as well as possible increased occurrence of HABs and toxigenic Vibrio spp.
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