Simulating Fish Movement Responses to and Potential Salinity Stress from Large‐Scale River Diversions

Rose, Kenneth A.; Huang, Haosheng; Justić, Dubravko; Mutsert, Kim de

doi:10.1080/19425120.2013.866999

Cited by 25 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(55 reference statements)

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“…Freshwater diversions are used to divert water from the Mississippi River to help enhance wetland vegetation and re-nourish marsh ecosystems (DeLaune et al 2003). Normally, large quantities of freshwater are allowed to flow through the structures during the cooler winter and early spring months of each year because of potential impacts to oysters and other fisheries that would result from exposure to lower-salinity waters during the warmer summer months (Turner 2006, La Peyre et al 2013, Rose et al 2014. In 2010, these diversions remained opened for significantly longer and at a higher flow rate than in previous years.…”

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confidence: 99%

Consequences of large-scale salinity alteration during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on subtidal oyster populations

Powers¹,

Grabowski²,

Roman³

et al. 2017

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Response actions associated with oil spills often have significant impacts on ecological communities. During the 87 d long Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the State of Louisiana (USA) released vast quantities of Mississippi River water into 2 estuarine basins (Barataria Bay and Black Bay/Breton Sound) in response to the approach of oil. We assessed the impact on subtidal oyster populations of this novel oil spill response action using 3 independent methods: (1) comparison of fisheries-independent post-spill densities to a pre-spill temporal baseline; (2) comparison of oyster density collected during natural resource damage assessment sampling between the area of maximal freshwater impact and reference areas in the 2 basins; and (3) estimation from a doseresponse model derived from an analysis of an in situ mark and recapture study conducted in 2010 to assess the relationship between salinity and oyster mortality. A substantial portion of both basins (483 km 2 of Barataria Bay and 362 km 2 of Black Bay/Breton Sound) experienced prolonged periods of very low (< 5 ppt) salinity in 2010 that lasted at least 1 mo longer than the average duration of low salinity between 2006 and 2009. The 3 approaches all indicate that dramatic losses occurred in the number of market-sized (> 75 mm) oysters as a result of a system-wide lowering of salinities, with an estimated 1.16 to 3.29 billion market-equivalent oysters lost. The efficacy of the large-scale response action of altering hydrographic conditions during the summer oyster growth period should be examined in light of the major perturbation to oyster communities.KEY WORDS: Estuary · Oil spill response · Natural resources damage assessment · Oyster reefs · Gulf of Mexico · Crassostrea virginica · Hydrography OPEN PEN ACCESS CCESS Contribution to the Theme Section 'Response of nearshore ecosystems to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill'Mar Ecol Prog Ser 576: [175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184][185][186][187] 2017 Too much freshwater reduces local salinity to levels where survivorship, growth, or reproduction of oysters is impaired, whereas too much ocean water generally elevates salinities and is associated with higher levels of predators (e.g. the oyster drill Stramonita haemastoma) or disease (e.g. the protozoan parasite Perkinsus marinus) that leads to reduced survivorship (e.g. Gunter 1955, Davis 1958, 1979, Chatry et al. 1983, Brown & Richardson 1988, Soniat & Brody 1988, Fodrie et al. 2008, La Peyre et al. 2009. Although the specific thresholds of these triggers varied from study to study, the general pattern of oysters thriving in waters whose average annual salinities fall be tween 8 and 22 ppt with frequent brief pulses of freshwater input is well established and accepted by oyster biologists. Because settlement of oysters is gregarious on existing oyster shells, sustainable populations of oysters require that the position of this green zone of water stays relatively fixed over time. A substantial perturbation of this salinity zone away from are...

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confidence: 99%

Consequences of large-scale salinity alteration during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on subtidal oyster populations

Powers¹,

Grabowski²,

Roman³

et al. 2017

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…Rose et al. ). Validation of the habitat suitability model using Pensacola Bay data to predict Choctawhatchee Bay habitat suggested that inter‐estuarine variability, even within local geographic regions, bears further consideration before habitat models are used to predict species distribution in a region where occupancy data was not collected empirically.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatially explicit assessment of estuarine fish after Deepwater Horizon oil spill: trade‐off in complexity and parsimony

Awkerman

Hemmer

Almario

et al. 2016

Ecological Applications

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Evaluating long-term contaminant effects on wildlife populations depends on spatial information about habitat quality, heterogeneity in contaminant exposure, and sensitivities and distributions of species integrated into a systems modeling approach. Rarely is this information readily available, making it difficult to determine the applicability of realistic models to quantify population-level risks. To evaluate the trade-offs between data demands and increased specificity of spatially explicit models for population-level risk assessments, we developed a model for a standard toxicity test species, the sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus), exposed to oil contamination following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and compared the output with various levels of model complexity to a standard risk quotient approach. The model uses habitat and fish occupancy data collected over five sampling periods throughout 2008-2010 in Pensacola and Choctawhatchee Bays, Florida, USA, to predict species distribution, field-collected and publically available data on oil distribution and concentration, and chronic toxicity data from laboratory assays applied to a matrix population model. The habitat suitability model established distribution of fish within Barataria Bay, Louisiana, USA, and the population model projected the dynamics of the species in the study area over a 5-yr period (October 2009-September 2014). Vital rates were modified according to estimated contaminant concentrations to simulate oil exposure effects. To evaluate the differences in levels of model complexity, simulations varied from temporally and spatially explicit, including seasonal variation and location-specific oiling, to simple interpretations of a risk quotient derived for the study area. The results of this study indicate that species distribution, as well as spatially and temporally variable contaminant concentrations, can provide a more ecologically relevant evaluation of species recovery from catastrophic environmental impacts but might not be cost-effective or efficient for rapid assessment needs.

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“…Many of these 187 sites were also chosen for eval uation under the NRDA-sponsored marsh edge and sandy shoreline study and the coastal vegetation study (www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/oilspill/ gulf-spill-data/ (Martínez et al 2012, Rose et al 2014, releasing 212 000 l s −1 (Davis Pond) and 226 000 l s −1 (Caernarvon) of Mississippi River water directly into those estuaries. Normally these structures are opened only during the cooler winter and early spring months of each year because of potential impacts to oysters and other fisheries from low-salinity water exposure during the warm late-spring and summer months (Turner 2006, Rose et al 2014). The additional sampling locations were probabilistically selected using the generalized random tessellation stratified sampling procedure (Stevens & Olsen 1999.…”

Section: Site Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem services are lost when facilitation between two ecosystem engineers is compromised by oil

Powers¹,

Rouhani²,

Baker³

et al. 2017

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Nearshore marine ecosystems are among the most productive areas in the world. Unfortunately, these areas also receive pollutants released into oceanic and riverine waters. Six years following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest in US history, the complexity of ecological injuries in this system is just now being elucidated. Here, we describe a novel pathway of injury from oil spills by documenting how the loss of oysters near marsh edge as a direct result of shoreline oiling and clean-up activities can double rates of coastal erosion. As part of the natural resource damage assessment, we examined the impact of shoreline oiling on eastern oysters Crassostrea virginica near the marsh edge at 187 sites in Louisiana and Mississippi Sound in 2013. For marshes that experienced heavy oiling, oyster habitat was 77% less abundant than in areas where no oil was observed. Areas near marshes characterized by more moderate levels of oiling had 33% less oyster habitat than areas where no oil was observed. Similarly, the number of sites without any oyster habitat was higher in heavily and persistently oiled areas compared to areas where no oil was observed (56 vs. 24%). The consequences of this loss are substantial and include loss of essential fish habitat, reduced nutrient cycling, and decreased erosion buffering. For a subset of the sites where erosion rate was also measured between 2010 and 2013 (n = 79), shoreline loss was more than twice as high (2.1 vs. 0.9 m yr −1 ) in areas lacking oyster cover. Our findings provide evidence that loss of nearshore oyster habitat can disrupt the strong facilitation between oysters and marsh vegetation.

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Simulating Fish Movement Responses to and Potential Salinity Stress from Large‐Scale River Diversions

Cited by 25 publications

References 59 publications

Consequences of large-scale salinity alteration during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on subtidal oyster populations

Consequences of large-scale salinity alteration during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on subtidal oyster populations

Spatially explicit assessment of estuarine fish after Deepwater Horizon oil spill: trade‐off in complexity and parsimony

Ecosystem services are lost when facilitation between two ecosystem engineers is compromised by oil

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