A Biological and Physical Monitoring Program to Evaluate Long-term Impacts from Sand Dredging Operations in the United States Outer Continental Shelf

The Growing Need for Sustainable Ecological Management of Marine Communities of the Persian Gulf

“…Quantities have been enormous: 94 million m 3 for Palm Jumeirah, 135 million m 3 for Palm Jebel Ali, and 330 million m 3 for The World to date. The effects of these extensive dredging activities on local marine communities are not well understood (Lindeman and Snyder 1999;Nairn et al 2004). Construction of Palm Jumeirah also resulted in trench-like borrow pits encircling the project, both outside and inside the crescent breakwater.…”

The Puck Bay as an example of deep dredging unfavorably affecting the aquatic environment

“…Benthic organism's activities stimulate processes that counteract eutrophication, i.e., denitrification and increased phosphorus retention of the sediment (Karlson et al 2005(Karlson et al , 2007. Furthermore, they are good indicators of changing environmental conditions and are usually examined in dredged areas (Nairn et al 2004, Robinson et al 2005, Seiderer and Newell 1999. Conditions in the dredge pits do not favor their recolonization (Flocks and Franze 2002, Palmer et al 2008, Szymelfenig et al 2006.…”

“…Deep pit excavation can create temporal anoxia and hypoxia inside the pits due to water column stratification and organic matter accumulation at the bottom of the pits (Flocks andFranze 2002, Nairn et al 2004). Changes in sediment size and dynamics in and around the pits were observed , Jutte et al 2002, Nairn et al 2004, Palmer et al 2008. A low-flow zone can occur within a dredge pit, which promotes deposition of fine-grained sediment (Johnnston 1981).…”

Effect of Beach Replenishment Projects on Waterbird and Shorebird Communities

“…Finally, any biological monitoring program should be designed in a way that minimizes natural variability in the monitoring data (NAIRN et al, 2004). For birds, steps to reduce variability could include conducting surveys at the same tidal stage, sampling all study transects on the same day, and focusing surveys in certain seasons.…”