Conference proceeding
Anthropogenic alterations of the Raritan River, NJ from pre-European settlement through the present
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, Vol.2018
Dec 2018
Abstract
By the start of the 18th Century, the Raritan River, NJ began to suffer impairments associated with deforestation, mineral mining, industrial activity, and intensified agricultural and development pressures. Despite this, anthropogenic activities and impacts on the Raritan River have not been quantified for the 20th and 21st centuries. Sediment proxies (pollen and diatom assemblages) preserved in wetland sediments provide an archive of environmental change. Sediment cores collected from tidal wetlands in the Raritan River expand our understanding of habitat and water quality prior to 17th century European settlement and enable us to establish base-line conditions that can be used to measure the amplitude of more recent, anthropogenically-disturbed conditions. Here, we present results on changing habitat, nutrient conditions, and water quality over the past 500 years in the Raritan River from three sediment cores collected over a salinity and pollution gradient that extends from Cheesequake, NJ to New Brunswick, NJ. Sediment cores were analyzed for (1) heavy metals (e.g. Pb, Cu, Cd and Ni) and organic pollutants (PCBs and OPCs) associated with local and regional industrial and agricultural activities; (2) pollen to identify the deforestation horizon and other vegetation changes; and (3) diatoms to determine changing nutrient levels. Sediment chronology was developed using radiocarbon ( (super 14) C) dating of plant rhizomes, timing of onset of European deforestation (Quercus:Ambrosia), and atmospheric deposition of heavy metals ( (super 206) Pb: (super 207) Pb) and short-lived radionuclides ( (super 137) Cs). Extending the pollution history to include pre-European baseline conditions is essential to assess the impacts of anthropogenic activity to help inform restoration targets and improve monitoring guidelines. We found that study sites near former industrial sites had the highest concentrations of heavy metals and organic pollutants, which the site nearest a protected marsh had the lowest concentrations of these contaminants. Additionally, our most polluted study site was located adjacent to a portion of the river where highly contaminated bottom sediments were found, implying that contaminants may be leaking from this site.
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Details
- Title
- Anthropogenic alterations of the Raritan River, NJ from pre-European settlement through the present
- Creators
- Margaret Christie - Rutgers University New Brunswick, Marine and Coastal Sciences New Brunswick, NJ USA United StatesJennifer L. ClearJennifer Sue WalkerTimothy ShawD. Reide CorbettMihaela EnacheNina DesiantiMarina PotapovaDaria NikitinaFrancisco ArtigasBenjamin Peter HortonAnonymous
- Publication Details
- American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, Vol.2018
- Conference
- American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (2018)
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES)
- Identifiers
- 991019297058504721