Nutrient and detritus transport in the Apalachicola River, Florida

Mattraw, H.C.; Elder, John F.

doi:10.3133/ofr83130

Cited by 26 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The Apalachicola River deposits an average annual detrital carbon input of 30,000 mt (Mattraw and Elder 1984). During the sampling period, the annually averaged inputs of in situ phytoplankton production amounted to 64,000 mtC per year.…”

Section: Comparison To Middle Bay Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentration-dependent Stable Isotope Analysis of Consumers in the Upper Reaches of a Freshwater-dominated Estuary: Apalachicola Bay, FL, USA

Wilson

Chanton

Lewis

et al. 2010

Estuaries and Coasts

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The goals of this study were to quantify organic matter source utilization by consumers in the freshwaterdominated region (East Bay) of a high river flow estuary and compare the results to consumers in marine-influenced sites of the same estuary to understand how organic matter utilization by consumers may be changing along the salinity gradient. We used the results from these evaluations to establish the baseline against which we isotopically determined trophic level for consumers in East Bay. Average isotope values for consumers sampled in East Bay ranged from −20.1‰ to −24.8‰ for carbon and from 8.9‰ to 14.3‰ for sulfur. These values were wellconstrained by the four identified sources: plankton, benthic organic matter, macroalgae, and terrestrial detritus. Application of a concentration-corrected mixing model resulted in contributions of benthic production and detrital sources (averaged over the food web) to East Bay consumers of 41% and 33%, respectively, with the remainder made up of plankton and benthic macroalage. While benthic organic matter was an important organic matter source for consumers at both sites, we found that the influence of terrestrial detritus varied significantly throughout the bay. Terrestrial detritus contributed only 18% of average total organic matter in organisms inhabiting marine-influenced sites. Although terrestrial detritus did contribute to all consumers examined, most fish species in Apalachicola Bay reflect a greater reliance on autochthonous sources. Our results suggest that, while terrestrial detritus does appear to be a major contributor to commercially important shellfish species (most notably oysters and penaeid shrimp), it is not the major source fueling the diversity of secondary production in Apalachicola Bay. Thus, production in Apalachicola Bay is highly dependent on riverine influx in two ways: (1) economically important bivalves and crustaceans are being fueled by terrestrial organic matter supplied by river flooding and (2) secondary and above consumer fish species are supported by in situ production which, in turn, is reliant on nutrients supplied by the Apalachicola River. These findings are significant in light of decisions regarding water usage and river flow restrictions in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint drainage basin. The results of this study confirm that in situ estuarine organic matter is the dominant source supporting secondary production in this river-dominated estuary.

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Section: Comparison To Middle Bay Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentration-dependent Stable Isotope Analysis of Consumers in the Upper Reaches of a Freshwater-dominated Estuary: Apalachicola Bay, FL, USA

Wilson

Chanton

Lewis

et al. 2010

Estuaries and Coasts

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“…Much of this material is carried from the floodplain downstream to the estuary when the river inundates its banks (Livingston 1981). Over half of the annual detrital input to the estuary occurs during spring floods (Mattraw and Elder 1984).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Examination of coupling between primary and secondary production in a river‐dominated estuary: Apalachicola Bay, Florida, U.S.A.

Chanton

Lewis

2002

Limnology & Oceanography

152

136

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To examine the influence of river-borne organic material on estuarine communities, we conducted a dual stable isotope study in an estuary heavily influenced by alluvial runoff. Despite significant alluvial influence, secondary production in Apalachicola Bay depends more upon estuarine primary production than upon a detrital food web supported by floodplain primary production. Two simple mixing models, floodplain-marine and floodplain-estuarine, indicated that the upper limits for the contribution of terrestrial organic matter to estuarine consumer diets averaged 37, 25, and 27% and 20, 19, and 25% for East Bay, Cat Point, and Dry Bar, respectively. Systematic ␦ 13 C variation of consumer organisms was found for differing locations and attributed to increasing influence of terrestrial organic matter and 13 C-depleted dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) closer to the river mouth. The ␦ 34 S data exhibited significant variation with river flow that was attributed to an admixture of terrestrial floodplain detritus with estuarine and marine organic matter. Both ␦ C and ␦ 34S isotope data demonstrated clear distinctions between benthic and water column feeding types. Our results suggest that the estuary is dependent on riverine inflows to provide floodplain detritus during the high-flow period and dissolved nutrients for estuarine primary productivity during the lowflow season. Any alteration of river hydrology may adversely affect estuarine secondary production, especially during the low-flow period when the estuary is dependent on input of dissolved nutrients to maintain a high level of primary productivity.Seminal works by Darnell (1958Darnell ( , 1961 and Odum and Heald (1972) focused on the role of detritus in the diets of a variety of fishes and macroinvertebrates. Yet, despite these and numerous other more recent feeding studies, the importance of organic detritus in providing nutritional support for estuarine food webs remains unclear. With the advent of stable isotope techniques, our understanding of the origins and flows of organic matter in estuarine, salt marsh, and nearshore environments has been greatly improved (Haines and

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“…Ninety percent of this three-river basin is drained by the Chattahoochee and the Flint in Georgia and Alabama, with the remainder originating in Florida from the Apalachicola and its largest tributary, the Chipola River (Leitman et al, 1983). Upstream streamflow is the principal component in the Apalachicola's water budget, with precipitation, groundwater discharge, and other inputs contributing little to the magnitude or variability of flow (Mattraw and Elder, 1984). Atlanta's population at the headwaters of the ACF basin has increased from one million in 1959 to over five million in 2007.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogeomorphic characterization of floodplain forest change in response to reduced flows along the Apalachicola River, Florida

Stallins

Nesius

Smith

et al. 2009

River Research & Apps

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The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River basin is an important ecological and economic component of a three-state region (Florida, Alabama and Georgia) in the southeastern U.S. Along the Apalachicola River in northwest Florida, the duration of floodplain inundation has decreased as a result of declining river levels. Spring and summer flows have diminished in volume because of water use, storage and evaporation in reservoirs, and other anthropogenic and climatic changes in the basin upstream. Channel erosion from dam construction and navigation improvements also caused river levels to decline in an earlier period. In this paper, we document trends in floodplain forest tree species composition for the interval spanning these influences. Historic tree inventories from the 1970s were compared to present-day forests through non-metric multidimensional scaling, indicator species analysis (ISA) and outlier detection. Forests are compositionally drier today than in the 1970s. Overstory to understory compositional differences within habitats (levees, high/low bottomland forest and backswamps) are as large as the species contrasts between habitats. Present-day forests are also compositionally noisier with fewer indicator species. The largest individual declines in species density and dominance were in backswamps, particularly for Fraxinus caroliniana Nyssa ogeche and Nyssa aquatica. We discuss how contrasts in the compositional change signal for levee and backswamp landform habitats reflect a complex biogeomorphic response to fluctuating river flows for alluvial rivers in humid climates.

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Nutrient and detritus transport in the Apalachicola River, Florida

Cited by 26 publications

References 20 publications

Concentration-dependent Stable Isotope Analysis of Consumers in the Upper Reaches of a Freshwater-dominated Estuary: Apalachicola Bay, FL, USA

Concentration-dependent Stable Isotope Analysis of Consumers in the Upper Reaches of a Freshwater-dominated Estuary: Apalachicola Bay, FL, USA

Examination of coupling between primary and secondary production in a river‐dominated estuary: Apalachicola Bay, Florida, U.S.A.

Biogeomorphic characterization of floodplain forest change in response to reduced flows along the Apalachicola River, Florida

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