A geomorphic classification of estuaries and its application to coastal resource management—A New Zealand example

Hume, Terry M.; Herdendorf, Charles E.

doi:10.1016/0951-8312(88)90022-7

Cited by 106 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…In fact, application of the European Union's (EU) Water Directive definition of "transitional waters" remains muddied around the differentiation between brackish and estuarine among broad seas, closed lagoons, or tidal estuaries (McKlusky and Elliott, 2007). Other estuary classifications (for example, Hume and Herdendorf, 1988;Simons and others, 2001) also include tidal freshwater and tidal flood plain ecosystems but do not classify estuarine features at the resolution of ecosystems. Although many recent approaches (for example, National Coastal/Marine Classification Standard for North America; Madden and Grossman, 2004) were developed to resolve deficiencies and inconsistencies in earlier classifications of habitat units and local structures for the estuarine and nearshore marine systems (Cowardin, 1979;Dethier, 1990;Brown, 1993;Wieland, 1993;Connor, 1997;Allee and others, 2000;Madley, 2002), none of these extended into tidal fluvial ecosystems and few provided much insight into tidal flood-plain ecosystems.…”

Section: Impetus For New Estuarine Ecosystem Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Columbia River Estuary ecosystem classification—Concept and application

Simenstad¹,

Burke²,

O'Connor³

et al. 2011

Open-File Report

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For more information on the USGS-the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment, visit http://www.usgs.gov or call 1-888-ASK-USGS.For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit http://www.usgs.gov/pubprodTo order this and other USGS information products, visit http://store.usgs.gov Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted material contained within this report. Tables Executive SummaryThis document describes the concept, organization, and application of a hierarchical ecosystem classification that integrates saline and tidal freshwater reaches of estuaries in order to characterize the ecosystems of large flood plain rivers that are strongly influenced by riverine and estuarine hydrology. We illustrate the classification by applying it to the Columbia River estuary (Oregon-Washington, USA), a system that extends about 233 river kilometers (rkm) inland from the Pacific Ocean. More than three-quarters of this length is tidal freshwater. The Columbia River Estuary Ecosystem Classification ("Classification") is based on six hierarchical levels, progressing from the coarsest, regional scale to the finest, localized scale: (1) Ecosystem Province; (2) Ecoregion; (3) Hydrogeomorphic Reach; (4) Ecosystem Complex; (5) Geomorphic Catena; and (6) Primary Cover Class. We define and map Levels 1-3 for the entire Columbia River estuary with existing geospatial datasets, and provide examples of Levels 4-6 for one hydrogeomorphic reach. In particular, three levels of the Classification capture the scales and categories of ecosystem structure and processes that are most tractable to estuarine research, monitoring, and management. These three levels are the (1) eight hydrogeomorphic reaches that embody the formative geologic and tectonic processes that created the existing estuarine landscape and encompass the influence of the resulting physiography on interactions between fluvial and tidal hydrology and geomorphology across 230 kilometers (km) of estuary, (2) more than 15 ecosystem complexes composed of broad landforms created predominantly by geologic processes during the Holocene, and (3) more than 25 geomorphic catenae embedded within ecosystem complexes that represent distinct geomorphic landforms, structures, ecosystems, and habitats, and components of the estuarine landscape most likely to change over short time periods. 2 IntroductionWe describe the rationale, conceptual basis, and application of a hierarchical ecosystem classification for large-river, flood-plain estuaries, and provide examples from the application of this controlling factor approach for the Columbia River estuary (Oregon-Washington, USA). A number of estuarine, delta and river-flood plain classifications based on ...

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Section: Impetus For New Estuarine Ecosystem Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Columbia River Estuary ecosystem classification—Concept and application

Simenstad¹,

Burke²,

O'Connor³

et al. 2011

Open-File Report

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“…Tairua Harbour is an elongate 13.5 km long barrierenclosed estuary (Hume & Herdendorf 1988) on the eastern Coromandel Peninsula, North Island, New Zealand (Fig. 1).…”

Section: Study Area and Catchment Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paper considers both estuarine mixing and exchange with adjacent coastal waters at Tairua Harbour ( Fig. 1), which has characteristics typical of many of the barrier-enclosed estuaries of the north-east coast of the North Island of New Zealand (Hume & Herdendorf 1988. Mixing and exchange processes were elucidated by investigating spatial changes in DSi concentration and salinity, both in the estuary and adjacent coastal waters and temporal variability over a tidal cycle at the tidal entrance, under various seasonal, tide range and river flow conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behaviour of dissolved silica, and estuarine/coastal mixing and exchange processes at Tairua Harbour, New Zealand

Bell

1994

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research

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The spatial and temporal variability of dissolved reactive silica (DSi) and salinity in Tairua Harbour (Coromandel, New Zealand) were investigated along with that of the riverine inputs and adjacent coastal waters. In all surveys, covering a range of fresh water discharges and seasons, the very high linear correlations between DSi concentration and salinity indicated conservative behaviour, with physical dilution being the only process having any effect on the distribution of DSi in both estuarine and coastal waters. The tidal exchange of DSi, and hence estuarine water, with the coastal water body was high, with around 82% of the incoming flood tide comprising "new" ocean water. This exchange process was strongly influenced by the quasi-periodic non-tidal alongshore current, but only weakly by variation in river discharge and tidal range. It appears that complete mixing of fresh water (under normal flow conditions) and riverine solutes occurs over a relatively narrow coastal zone (2-3 km) along this stretch of the Coromandel Peninsula.

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“…Mature trees ranged from <1 m (Bayswater) to >4 m (Mangere; Table 2). All selected estuaries are barrier enclosed river embayments, except Waitemata Harbour (Bayswater) which is a drowned valley system (Hume and Herdendorf, 1988). The estuaries have semi-diurnal tides with amplitudes of 1.4-4.1 m (LINZ, 2014).…”

Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon and Nitrogen Stocks and Below-Ground Allometry in Temperate Mangroves

2016

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Mangroves play an important role in the storage of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) within estuarine systems, yet are being lost at an alarming rate throughout the tropics. In contrast, temperate mangroves have increased in area at many locations in recent decades. Field surveys, sediment sampling, allometry, and C and N analysis were used to determine total C and N stocks in five temperate Avicennia marina subsp. australasica forests in New Zealand. This is the first study developing allometric functions to estimate root biomass C and N stocks for A. marina. A. marina forests stored 117.1 ± 16.8 t C ha −1 and 15.4 ± 1.0 t N ha −1 in above and below-ground biomass and sediment to 100 cm depth. Below-ground biomass and sediment C and N stocks contributed 88 ± 3 and 99 ± 0.4% to total C and N stocks, respectively, emphasizing the importance of below-ground biomass and sediment in mangrove ecosystems. The results of this study can be used to inform management decisions for estuarine and coastal ecosystems, currently undergoing rapid changes in mangrove area.

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A geomorphic classification of estuaries and its application to coastal resource management—A New Zealand example

Cited by 106 publications

References 6 publications

Columbia River Estuary ecosystem classification—Concept and application

Columbia River Estuary ecosystem classification—Concept and application

Behaviour of dissolved silica, and estuarine/coastal mixing and exchange processes at Tairua Harbour, New Zealand

Carbon and Nitrogen Stocks and Below-Ground Allometry in Temperate Mangroves

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