Modelling the effect of drought on estuarine water quality

Attrill, Martin J.; Power, Michael

doi:10.1016/s0043-1354(99)00305-x

Cited by 53 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Since extended hypoxia is well known to have negative impacts on aquatic communities (Diaz and Rosenberg 2008), our study suggests that increased tidal flushing could improve aquatic community health at tidally restricted sites even in the absence of land-use changes. Similar conclusions about the importance of flushing have been made from modeling studies on the effect of drought on estuarine water quality (Attrill and Power 2000). Together these data clearly illustrate that land-based efforts to improve water quality cannot be considered in isolation from management practices that affect the flow of water, regardless of the fact that these operations are often undertaken by different personnel in various organizations.…”

Section: Signatures Of Tide Gate Repairs In the Water Quality Datasupporting

confidence: 63%

Signatures of Restoration and Management Changes in the Water Quality of a Central California Estuary

Gee

Wasson

Shaw

et al. 2010

Estuaries and Coasts

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Coastal managers and policy-makers are concerned with tracking improvements to water quality linked to management changes. Long-term water quality data acquired from two wetland areas in the upper reaches of the Elkhorn Slough estuary in central California were analyzed for signatures of land restoration or water control structure management. Post-restoration averaged NO 3 , NH 3 , and PO 4 concentrations were 50-70% less than before-restoration concentrations. Assessment of watershed-scale effects revealed that proximity of restoration to sampling locations had almost as strong an effect on water quality as the percentage of land restored relative to watershed size. Results also suggest that restoration of even 1% of an agriculturally intensive watershed such as that of the Elkhorn Slough may result in improvements to water quality. Finally, results indicate that tide gate function can dominate water quality in managed wetlands and must be carefully tracked and managed in the context of estuarine conservation targets.

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Section: Signatures Of Tide Gate Repairs In the Water Quality Datasupporting

confidence: 63%

Signatures of Restoration and Management Changes in the Water Quality of a Central California Estuary

Gee

Wasson

Shaw

et al. 2010

Estuaries and Coasts

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“…4). Dissolved oxygen saturation of estuarine waters is influenced by several biogeochemical parameters: primary production, organic matter degradation, nitrification, eddy exchanges (Morris et al, 1982;Irigoien et al, 1999;Attrill and Power, 2000;van Vliet and Zwolsman, 2008). The maximum turbidity zone is a natural reactor which promotes organic matter degradation.…”

Section: Trend In Oxygen Saturation Of Waters In the Vicinity Of A Lamentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring water quality in estuarine environments: lessons from the MAGEST monitoring program in the Gironde fluvial-estuarine system

Etcheber

Schmidt

Sottolichio

et al. 2011

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The Gironde Estuary, one of the largest European ones, presents temporary low dissolved oxygen content in its fluvial section close to the Bordeaux urban area. In a context of population growth and of long-term environmental changes, the development of a high-frequency monitoring programme of the fluvial-estuarine system of the Gironde, called MAGEST (MArel Gironde ESTuary), had appeared essential to address current and future water-quality issues/evaluations. The objectives of the MAGEST survey program are to establish a reference database to improve the knowledge of the Gironde Estuary functioning, encompassing the aspects of hydrology, sediment dynamics and biogeochemistry. Through examples of results from intratidal to seasonal time scales, we demonstrate how such a long-term, high-frequency monitoring of a fluvio-estuarine system is of valuable interest to extract the main trends of its functioning and of the water quality in relation to external forcings (climatology, urban wastes, land use, . . . ) and to predict the future evolution of an estuary with global and environmental changes.

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“…Lower turbidity during drought conditions could be a direct result of less high-turbidity freshwater mixing with low-turbidity estuary water. The positive relationship between turbidity and inflow (negative relationship between turbidity and salinity) is common (Alden, 1997;Attrill & Power, 2000a) and is often attributed to the higher amounts of watershed erosion and suspended sediment load that occurs as flows increase. Lower primary productivity during drought conditions could also cause lower turbidity because of less living organic matter that is suspended in the water column.…”

Section: Water Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…during drought conditions, or the physical property whereby oxygen solubility decreases from fresh to sea water (Benson & Krause, 1984). Seasonal low dissolved oxygen concentrations that occur during the drier and warmer summers in the Thames Estuary, England were attributed the higher residence time and break down of organic matter rates in the estuary (Attrill & Power, 2000a and references therein). However when comparing drought versus non-drought periods, the same authors actually observed higher dissolved oxygen concentrations during drought summers and no difference between drought and non-drought winter periods.…”

Section: Water Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of droughts and low flows on estuarine water quality and benthic fauna

Palmer

Montagna

2015

Hydrobiologia

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The effects of droughts on benthic infaunal communities and three epifaunal species were determined in three semi-arid central Texas estuaries with different inflow dynamics and consequent salinity regimes: the Nueces, Lavaca-Colorado, and Guadalupe Estuaries. Periods (months or years) were considered to be in drought if mean salinities were in the upper quartile of historic salinities. This drought classification method was verified by comparing the Palmer Drought Severity Index of the catchments with the drought classifications within each estuary. Droughts have demonstrable effects on estuary water column condition, notably decreases in turbidity, nutrient concentrations, and chlorophyll concentrations. Droughts do not appear to be important drivers of infaunal communities in estuarine regions with normally high salinities (25-32) although they coincide with increased diversity and changes in community composition in estuarine regions that have lower salinities (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19). Droughts cause decreases in Litopenaeus setiferus (white shrimp) and Callinectes sapidis (blue crab) abundances and spatial extents. This indicates that droughts, especially when combined with water diversions, may negatively affect primary and secondary productions in other semi-arid estuaries of the world.

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Modelling the effect of drought on estuarine water quality

Cited by 53 publications

References 48 publications

Signatures of Restoration and Management Changes in the Water Quality of a Central California Estuary

Signatures of Restoration and Management Changes in the Water Quality of a Central California Estuary

Monitoring water quality in estuarine environments: lessons from the MAGEST monitoring program in the Gironde fluvial-estuarine system

Impacts of droughts and low flows on estuarine water quality and benthic fauna

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