salinity,dissolvedoxygen,andnutrientconcentrationsin（15页）.docVIP

Salinity, dissolved oxygen, and nutrient concentrations in Oyster Pond, Falmouth, Massachusetts Karen Bishop and Michael Perret Boston University Marine Program, Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, Massachussetts 02543 ABSTRACT Anthropogenic impacts have considerable effects on coastal waters, and distributions of salinity, dissolved oxygen, and nutrients may be used to assess water quality and the extent of eutrophication in water bodies. Oyster Pond (OP), a regulated-tidal pond in Falmouth, MA, is a valuable model, and ongoing testament to how human manipulation will distort the natural composition of flora and fauna in delicately balanced estuarine waters. By implementation of a weir, to minimize regular tidal flushing, in hopes of aiding choice fish species, the salinity of OP has leveled out after several years at concentrations significantly lower than a nearby free-flowing tidal pond, Salt Pond (SP). Dissolved O2 is only slightly higher in the fresher waters of OP, and has remained somewhat constant between 2001 and 2004. Similarly, although slightly more eutrophic waters are seen in SP, with NO3 and NH4 concentrations measured throughout the majority of both ponds being higher SP—PO4 being practically absent from both ponds—little change has occurred in the concentrations of these nutrients within OP between 2001 and 2004. The exceptions to these trends are the notably higher NH4 and PO4 and lower O2 concentrations in the deep basins of OP, in 2004, than found either in SP or in OP in 2001. This suggests that unlike SP, which remains well mixed throughout the water column by daily tidal flushing; due to regulation, deeper waters in OP receive minimal mixing, because of greatly reduced tidal exchange, and are, therefore, becoming continually more stratified than SP. INTRODUCTION Evidence of eutrophication includes increases in nutrient concentrations, and decreases in dissolved oxygen concentra