T246 Wetlands: Form, Function and History (Posters)

Wednesday, 7 November 2012
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Hall B

A STUDY OF PHYTOPLANKTON ABUNDANCE IN PIERMONT MARSH

Paper number: T246-7
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Authors

Abstract

Piermont Marsh, a brackish wetland located in Haverstraw Bay south of the Tappan Zee Bridge, is a sheltered habitat for juvenile nekton that, with similar wetlands in the Hudson/Raritan Estuary, plays a critical role in recruitment to coastal fish stocks in the Atlantic Bight. We report here on a time series of 80 plankton tows over a 12-month period in the waters in and around the Marsh. We sampled the boundary waters of the Hudson River and Sparkill Creek, several tidal creeks that cut through the Marsh and two tidal pools in the Marsh interior, using a 153mm and 363mm nets. In this poster we compare the changes in abundance and variety of plankton from these areas throughout the year.

Initial results indicate low levels of abundance in the fall and winter, as expected from previous sampling in the Hudson estuary, and a surprising degree of temporal variation in species composition. The data show large populations of Eutima Gracilis, a small planktonic jellyfish, in the summer as well as large numbers of shrimp. Furthermore, there are many more copepods in the spring season than in the other seasons due to the drop in salinity in the colder seasons. We report on the diversity of populations through an annual cycle and put these data in the context of a broad, long-term study of the ecology of Piermont Marsh, including nekton abundance and diversity, nutrient concentrations, bacterial levels and hydrology.

All samples were collected, prepared and analyzed by NYC public high school and college students participating in the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Secondary School Field Research Program.