Journal article
Tidal and seasonal variations in the quantity and composition of seston in a North American, Mid-Atlantic saltmarsh
Estuarine, coastal and shelf science, v 56(3-4), pp 547-560
01 Mar 2003
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
We determined the concentration of seston, particulate organic matter, and biological components (chlorophyll a, bacteria, and heterotrophic nanoflagellates) for 25 mu m size fraction seston over five seasons in Canary Creek saltmarsh, Delaware Bay, USA. This material is the potential food resource for suspension-feeding ribbed mussels, Geukensia demissa, that inhabit the marsh intertidal zone. For eight tidal cycles each season we collected water six times at hourly intervals from mid-flood tide to mid-ebb tide. Although the concentration of seston did not vary seasonally, there were significant seasonal variations (analysis of variance, P0.05) in seston components, with chlorophyll a concentration being highest in May and bacteria and heterotrophic nanoflagellates most abundant in August. Seston composition also varied within each tidal cycle with a magnitude as great as the seasonal variation. We conclude that ribbed mussels (Geukensia demissa) are subject to an unpredictable food supply that varies in composition and concentration on the order of hours and days. In contrast to the pronounced temporal changes, seston characteristics did not differ significantly among sampling locations within the marsh, or between samples collected close to the sediment surface and from the upper water column. Resuspension of sediment particles caused by tidal flow was not evident in tidal creeks and there were no dominant patterns in total seston concentration corresponding to tidal stages (flood tide, high slack water, and ebb tide) over the five sampling months. The abundance of biological components in the seston, including chlorophyll a, bacteria, and heterotrophic nanoflagellates, were significantly greater during high flood tide and high slack water than during ebb tide. The decline of biological components, particularly chlorophyll a in the ebb tide, indicates that this temperate saltmarsh imported organic material produced in the Delaware estuary.
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Details
- Title
- Tidal and seasonal variations in the quantity and composition of seston in a North American, Mid-Atlantic saltmarsh
- Creators
- S-C Huang - University of Maryland Center for Environmental SciencesD A Kreeger - Drexel UniversityRIE Newell
- Publication Details
- Estuarine, coastal and shelf science, v 56(3-4), pp 547-560
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000183390400013
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-0038100142
- Other Identifier
- 991019173683904721
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InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Marine & Freshwater Biology
- Oceanography