Observing the urban estuary: Review and prospect

Boicourt, William C.; Li, M.; Nidzieko, Nicholas J.; Blumberg, Alan F.; Georgas, Nickitas; Kelly, Emily; Updyke, Teresa; Wilson, W. Douglas

doi:10.1109/oceans.2012.6405120

“…Estuary combines unique physical, chemical, biological, and geological features (Mann, 1982;Elliott and Quintino, 2007). As per a recent estimate, estuaries are four times more productive than ryegrass pastures and 20-times more productive than the open sea, with production occurring through active photosynthesis both throughout the water column and on the sediment surface (Boicourt et al, 2012). The estuarine organism uses productive ecosystems for spawning, feeding, nursing, and migration (Blaber et al, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecohydrological features and biodiversity status of estuaries in Bengal delta, Bangladesh: A comprehensive review

Rakib

¹

,

Hossain

²

,

Islam

³

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

1

0

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An estuary represents a transition point between freshwater and saltwater and has a complex but productive environment due to a strong interplay between geological, physical, chemical, and biological processes. In Bangladesh, the ecological factors and biodiversity of different estuaries have been investigated for the last 35 years. However, the data is widely scattered, not easily accessible, unpublished, and/or in the form of grey literature. In this study, an attempt has been made to aggregate information available on the geo-environmental and biodiversity status of estuaries for their sustainable management. The biological and environmental data of 21 estuaries along the Bangladesh coast were collected from previously published literature and analyzed. The analyses revealed that the estuarine environment of Bangladesh is very dynamic and diverse like other tropical estuaries. The physico-chemical and geological parameters in estuaries significantly varied due to monsoon patterns, nutrient influx, salinity intrusion, riverine discharge, siltation, and human interventions in estuaries. Among the key environmental variables, such as salinity (3.7–30 ppt), pH (7.04–8), dissolved oxygen (3.30–13.63 mg/L), and water temperature (21–30°C) varied. Over 830 faunal and floral species of 273 genera were recorded from the estuarine environment, including 208 fishes, 87 species of phytoplankton, and 67 species of zooplankton in this region. This study suggests the development of an appropriate policy to protect valuable, productive, and diverse ecosystems, especially for erosion control, pollution abatement, and habitat destruction, particularly in the mangrove forests and their associated habitats of Bangladesh.

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Connections to Tidal Marsh and Restored Salt Ponds Drive Seasonal and Spatial Variability in Ecosystem Metabolic Rates in Lower South San Francisco Bay

Roberts

¹

,

MacVean

²

,

Holleman

³

et al. 2022

Estuaries and Coasts

2

1

0

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We characterized five years of seasonal metabolic patterns in two tidal sloughs in Lower South San Francisco Bay, one surrounded by a broad tidal marsh and the other connected to restored salt ponds (ponds). Despite comparable seasonal dissolved oxygen (DO) patterns, the two sloughs exhibited markedly different seasonal metabolic rates. The in-depth analysis of these small intertidal systems reveals the complexity of processes at work in the fringing habitats of larger estuaries. In the marsh-connected slough, respiration rates peaked in summer (~10 g $${\mathrm{O}}_{2}/{\mathrm{m}}^{2}/\mathrm{d}$$ O 2 / m 2 / d ), coincident with highly dynamic net ecosystem production rates (NEP). The peaks in DO consumption were correlated with temperature and tidal elevation. The most negative NEP rates were associated with the highest nighttime tides, when strong over-marsh respiration rates cannot be balanced by production. Thus, the combination of warmer water and the coincidence of higher-high tides with dark hours during summer may largely explain seasonal DO patterns in the marsh-connected slough. In the pond-connected slough, strong net heterotrophy (NEP < -20 g $${\mathrm{O}}_{2}/{\mathrm{m}}^{2}/\mathrm{d}$$ O 2 / m 2 / d ) correlated with peak phytoplankton production and export from the adjacent ponds in spring, consistent with the hypothesis that organic matter exported from the pond exerts oxygen demand in the turbid slough. The impact of the elevated spring respiration rates appears to be offset by the super-oxygen-saturated water entering the slough from the highly productive pond. Oxygen minima in the slough (< 5 $$\mathrm{g}/{\mathrm{m}}^{3})$$ g / m 3 ) occurred in summer when outflow from the pond was lower in DO, coinciding with weaker, but still very high, in-slough respiration (~ 10 g $${\mathrm{O}}_{2}/{\mathrm{m}}^{2}/\mathrm{d}$$ O 2 / m 2 / d ).

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Harnessing the Environmental Data Flood: A Comparative Analysis of Hydrologic, Oceanographic, and Meteorological Informatics Platforms

Dow¹,

Dow²,

Fitzsimmons³

et al. 2015

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

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Researchers studying large-scale questions in hydrology, oceanography, and meteorology can work with existing data through myriad platforms that provide access to remote datasets and render said information in various graphical outputs for interpretation and analysis. A survey of 30 publicly available hydrometeorological data platforms reviews the current state of the art in water-data discovery and visualization. Such platforms best meet the needs of a diverse user community by providing valuable data content, facilitating data exchange, and supporting visual analysis. To provide datasets of value to wider audiences, data providers can emphasize building datasets that are not only voluminous but also proportionally content rich in geographic, temporal, and measurement breadth, through integration of complementary datasets and coordinated data collection programs. In support of efficient data interchange, including software-driven integration of complementary content, data providers should increase adoption of web services to share data, along with machine-readable formats. In addition, this work surveys best practices in visualization and advocates for graphical user interface features that provide the flexibility required to integrate heterogeneous datasets by both novice and expert end users. Features that stand out as particularly useful include comprehensive content filters for customizable data queries, multiparameter plotting, statistical analysis tools, and predictive visualization. Effective combination of comprehensive—as well as voluminous—content, widely implemented standards for efficient data interchange, and appropriate visualization flexibility in the next generation of tools provided as software services will empower a wide user community, spanning laypersons, students, and researchers.

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Observing the urban estuary: Review and prospect

Cited by 3 publications

References 17 publications

Ecohydrological features and biodiversity status of estuaries in Bengal delta, Bangladesh: A comprehensive review

Ecohydrological features and biodiversity status of estuaries in Bengal delta, Bangladesh: A comprehensive review

Connections to Tidal Marsh and Restored Salt Ponds Drive Seasonal and Spatial Variability in Ecosystem Metabolic Rates in Lower South San Francisco Bay

Harnessing the Environmental Data Flood: A Comparative Analysis of Hydrologic, Oceanographic, and Meteorological Informatics Platforms

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