Detrimental effects of sedimentation on marine benthos: what can be learned from natural processes and rates?
Introduction
Current approaches to the effects of high rates of sedimentation on benthic organisms are limited in scope and ineffective. New approaches are necessary to properly understand the effects of erosion and deposition extremes on marine benthic organisms. Using examples from ongoing work in the field and in our laboratory, we will illustrate some ways in which these limitations may be overcome, yielding results of direct relevance to dredge project design and benthic resource management. By applying these new concepts and drawing upon the ecological processes literature, we believe that it will be possible to better predict direct impacts, to determine appropriate options for site remediation, and to assess the potential for beneficial uses of dredge material.
Section snippets
Basic assertions
Even the casual visitor to the seashore will appreciate that sediment movement is a natural phenomenon. Waves and tides move sand, and the rates of movement are greatly modulated by the wind and weather (Miller and Sternberg, 1988, Hall, 1994, Sherwood et al., 1994). The most severe agents of sediment movement on the Mid-Atlantic coast are winter nor'easters and summer hurricanes. Seasonally, the ocean shoreline erodes during the winter and accretes in the summer. Sandbars shoal and shift, and
Critical issues
While beach projects have many positive societal benefits, they also cause the disruption of coastal benthic habitats and living resources (National Research Council, 1995). The traditional mainstays of benthic resource assessment are coring and grab sampling of the seafloor, preservation of organisms in formalin, and faunal enumeration in the laboratory. These techniques are aptly known as ‘kill'em and count'em’ methodologies. At a tentatively chosen disposal site, benthic sampling and
Case studies in Delaware Bay
In Delaware Bay (Fig. 1), we are using field and lab studies to determine what rates and frequencies of sediment movement occur naturally, and further, what rates and frequencies are detrimental to representative benthic species and functional groups. As a preliminary step, we completed a white paper literature study (Miller, 1999a) to build upon previous efforts and to identify data gaps. Subsequently, we have used field studies and laboratory experiments to investigate sedimentation effects
Predicting impacts from new data and the ecological literature
We recognize that the treatment levels employed in our experiments described above are less severe than would be expected in a dredging project. Deposition treatments on the order of 10 cm per day were chosen intentionally to fall between biological rates and the typical dredging project. Lower rates typical of bioturbation are known to affect benthos and are relatively well studied in the field and lab (Krager and Woodin, 1993). There is little doubt that deposition of one meter of sand will
Conclusions
In this paper, we have argued for a new approach to real-life coastline management situations, one that goes well beyond conventional impact monitoring and assessment. Standard macrofaunal sampling and whole community analysis have been mainstays of benthic ecology and continue to develop novel tools for more probing analyses. Inferences derived from whole-community assessments must be based on a firm empirical and theoretical basis, preferably through rigorous experimentation and not just
Acknowledgements
For supporting this work and the preparation of this manuscript, we thank the University of Delaware Sea Grant College Program (Project R/ME-25), and the National Science Foundation GRT and REU program grants to the Graduate College of Marine Studies. Several anonymous reviewers aided us in improving this manuscript. We also thank Vince Capone of Marine Search & Survey, Inc. and Captain Jerry Blakeslee of the MV Grizzly for technical, equipment and logistical support in the field.
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