Estuarine Interactions

595 Pages·1978·20.074 MB·English

by  Martin L. Wiley (Eds.)

Produced by
The Estuarine Research Federation
in cooperation with
The Marine Technology Society
Sponsored by
Army Corps of Engineers
Bureau of Land Management
Environmental Protection Agency
Fish and Wildlife Service
Geological Survey
Land Information and Analysis Office
Water Resources Divison
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Marine Ecosystems Analysis Program
National Marine Fisheries Service
Office of Coastal Zone Management
Proceedings of the Fourth Biannual International
Estuarine Research Conference,
Mount PoconOy Pennsylvania, October 2-5, 1977
ESTUARINE INTERACTIONS
Edited by
MARTIN L. ΨΙΙΈΥ
University of Maryland
Center for Environmental and Estuarine Studies
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
Solomons, Maryland
ACADEMIC PRESS New York San Francisco London 1978
A Subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers
COPYRIGHT © 1978, BY ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
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United Kingdom Edition published by
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. (LONDON) LTD.
24/28 Oval Road, London NWl 7DX
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
International Estuarine Research Conference, 4th,
Pocono, Pa., 1977.
Estuarine interactions.
Proceedings of the Fourth International Estuarine
Research Conference, Pocono, Pa., Oct. 2-5, 1977.
Includes index.
1. Estuaries—Congresses. 2. Estuarine biology-
Congresses. 1. Wiley, Martin L. II. Title.
GC96.5.157 1977 574.5'2636 78-11110
ISBN 0-12-751850-9
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
78 79 80 81 82 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Aller, Robert C, Department of Geophysical Sciences, 5734 S. Ellis
Avenue, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illmois 60637
Appan, 5. G., Daniel Analytical Services Coφ., 16821 Buccaneer Lane,
Suite 202, Houston, Texas 77058
Armstrong, Neal E., Department of Civil Engineering, University of
Texas, Austin, Texas 78712
Atkinson, L. P., Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box 13687,
Savannah, Georgia 31406
Bahr, Leonard M., Jr., Department of Marine Sciences, Louisiana State
University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
Bartsch-Winkler, Susan, U.S. Geological Survey, Branch of Alaskan Geol­
ogy, 345 Middleford Road, Menlo Park, California 94025
Blanton, J, O., Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box
13687, Savannah, Georgia 31406
Buzas, Martin A,, Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institu­
tion, Washington, D.C. 20560
Carpenter, Roy, Department of Oceanography, University of
Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
Chamberlain, Charles F., Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box
13687, Savannah, Georgia 31406
Christian, Robert /?., Department of Biological Sciences, Drexel
University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
Colwell, Rita R., Department of Microbiology, University of Mary­
land, College Park, Maryland 20742
Cross, Ford Α., National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast
Fisheries Center, Beaufort Laboratory, Beaufort, North Carolina 28516
Crout, Richard L., Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology & Coastal
Research, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
29208
List of Contributors
Day, John W., Jr,, Department of Marine Sciences, Louisiana State Univer­
sity, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
Dayal, R., Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New
York, Stony Brook, New York 11794
Duedall, Iver V., Marine Sciences Research Center, State University
of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794
Dunstan, William M,, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box 13687,
Savannah, Georgia 31406
Elliott, A, J,, Chesapeake Bay Institute, The Johns Hopkins University, Bal­
timore, Maryland 21218
Falk, Lloyd L., Engineering Service Division, Engineering Department,
E. L du Pont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Delaware 19898
Finley, Robert J., Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at
Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
Fr٧h, Ε, Gus, Environmental Health Engineering Program, Department of
Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
78712
Gallagher, John L., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Corval­
lis Environmental Research Laboratory, 200 S.W. 35th Street, Corval­
lis, Oregon 97330
Garside, Chris, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, McKown
Point, W. Boothbay Harbor, Maine 04575
Greer, Jeffrey E., Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology & Coastal
Research, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
29208
Hanson, Roger B., Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box 13687,
Savannah, Georgia 31406
Harris, Virginia M., Port Aransas Marine Laboratory, The University of
Texas Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, Texas 78373
Hayes, Miles O., Coastal Research Division, Department of Ge­
ology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
29208
Hedgpeth, Joel W., Dr., 5660 Montecito Avenue, Santa Rosa, California
95404
Heesen, Theadore C, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project,
1500 East Imperial Highway, El Segundo, California 90245
Herring, Janet P., Marine Sciences Institute, The University of Connec­
ticut, Groton, Connecticut 06340
Hinson, Melvin O., Jr., Resources for the Future, Inc., 1755 Massachusetts
Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
Hirschberg, D.J., Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of
New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794
Hull, G., Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, W. Boothbay Harbor,
Maine 04575
List of Contributors xiii
Jackim, Eugene, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environ­
mental Research Laboratory, South Ferry Road, Narragansett, Rhode
Island 02882
Jahnke, R. Α., Department of Oceanography, University of Washington,
Seattle, Washington 98195
Jan, Tsu-Kai, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, 1500
East Imperial Highway, El Segundo, California 90245
Jones, K. W,, Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory,
Upton, New York 19973
Kamlet, Kenneth S., National Wildlife Federation, 1412 16th Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20036
Kaper, J., Department of Microbiology, University of Maryland, College
Park, Maryland 20742
Kjerfve, Bjorn, Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology &
Coastal Research, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South
Carolina 29208
Kroner, H. W., Instrumentation Division, Brookhaven National Labora­
tory, Upton, New York 19973
Lake, Carol, Environmental Research Laboratory, South Ferry Road, Nar­
ragansett, Rhode Island 02882
Lambert, Walter P., U.S. Army Medical Bioengineering, Research &
Development Laboratory, Fort Detrick, Maryland 21701
McCall, Peter L., Department of Earth Sciences Case Western Re­
serve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Muller, Robert A,, Department of Geography & Anthropology, Louisiana
State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
Ovenshine, A. T., U.S. Department of Interior, Geological Survey, Branch
of Alaskan Geology, 345 Middleford Road, Menlo Park, California
94025
Parker, J. H., Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New
York, Stony Brook, New York 11794
Peterson, M. L., Department of Oceanography, University of Washmgton,
Seattle, Washington 98195
Read, Luana Μ., Marine Sciences Institute, The University of Connecticut,
Groton, Connecticut 06340
Rhoads, Donald C, Department of Geology & Geophysics, Box
2161, Yale Station, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
Roels, Oswald Α., Port Aransas Marine Laboratory, The University of
Texas Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, Texas 78373
Rogers, James Α., Office of General Council, Water Quality Division
(A-131), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
20460
Schroeder, William W,, Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory, Box 386,
Dauphin Island, Alabama 36528
xiy List of Contributors
Schubel, J. R., Marine Sciences Research Center, State University
of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794
Sharfstein, Bruce Α., Port Aransas Marine Laboratory, The University of
Texas Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, Texas 78373
Sharp, James M., Gulf Universities Research Consortium, 16821
Buccaneer Lane, Suite 206, Houston, Texas 77058
Sherr, Barry, Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens,
Georgia 30601
Shroy, R, Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Up­
ton, New York 19973
Stone, James H., Department of Marine Sciences, Louisiana State
University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
Sunda, William G., National Marine Fisheries Service, Southeast Fisheries
Center, Beaufort Laboratory, Beaufort, North Carolina 28516
Taft, Jay L,, Chesapeake Bay Institute, The Johns Hopkins Univer­
sity, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
Taylor, W, R., Chesapeake Bay Institute, The Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, Maryland 21218
Tenore, Kenneth R., Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box
13687, Savannah, Georgia 31406
Tietjen, John H,, Department of Biology, City College of The City Univer­
sity of New York, New York 10010
Ullman, William J., Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of
Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
Virnstein, Robert W., Harbor Branch Foundation, Inc., R.R. 1, Box
196, Fort Pierce, Florida 33450
Welsh, Barbara L., Marine Sciences Institute, The University of
Connecticut, Groton, Connecticut 06340
Wetzel, Richard L,, Wetlands Research, Virginia Institute of Marine Sci­
ence, Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062
Yentsch, C, 5., Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, W. Boothbay Har­
bor, Maine 04575
Yingst, Josephine Y., Department of Geology & Geophysics, Box
2161, Yale Station, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
Young, David R., Southern California Coastal Water Research Pro­
ject, 1500 East Imperial Highway, El Segundo, California 90245
FOREWORD
Estuaries and adjacent environments are ecological systems that are sub­
jected to continual stress by natural and man-induced perturbations. The
goal of estuarine scientists is to gain knowledge of the structure and function­
ing of these complex interacting systems. It is hoped that this knowledge will
be used by decision-makers when confronted with the awesome task of de­
ciding the utilization and fate of these extremely valuable resources. Be­
cause of their dynamic nature and their societal importance, many scientific
investigations dealing with estuaries are continuously underway. To facili­
tate the transfer of research information and to review the state of the art, a
fundamental responsibility of the Estuarine Research Federation is to con­
vene an international conference every two years dealing with advances in
research. During the period of October 2-5, 1977, the Fourth International
Estuarine Research Federation Conference was held at the Mount Airy
Lodge, Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania at an elevation well above that of the
high spring tide level. This volume includes the written form of the invited
papers that were part of eight sessions. Although the excitement of the formal
and informal discussions that took place at the meeting as a result of these
papers is impossible to capture completely on paper, the rigorous reviewing
by referees and the elegant editing by Martin Wiley have resulted in a volume
that is of value not only to those estuarinists who were in attendance, but
also to our colleagues who were unable to attend.
Based on the papers presented here, the objectives of the Estuarine
Research Federation to review current research and to suggest new research
directions have been accomplished, at least until our next meeting in 1979.
F. John Vernberg, President
Estuarine Interactions
AS BLIND MEN SEE THE ELEPHANT:
THE DILEMMA OF MARINE ECOSYSTEM RESEARCH
Joel W. Hedgpeth
Emeritus Professor of Oceanography
5660 Montecito Avenue
Santa Rosa, California
Abstract: We are beset in these days of impact assessments, environmental moni­
toring and all, with the problem of studying a complex system in some way that
will convince us we know what is going on and that we can predict the effect of
our actions on this system. Meetings on this subject tend to fragment into lobbyists
for the various approaches. The Baconian ideal of compiling all knowledge and
consigning it to the computer to tell us what to think about it all is the ultimate
extreme on one side, and the notion that one (or perhaps two) numbers from a
dying mussel may be all we need is the other extreme of the ancient problem of
deducing the state of affairs from diverse concepts based on limited vision or
perhaps no vision at all, but a disconnected set of tactile impressions of the ele­
phant. Or, to put it another way, how we can be certain we are not still prisoners
in Plato's cave?
During the 1976 International Marine Biology Symposium at Helgoland, I
was asked to organize, or at lease convene, a discussion of the needs of marine
ecosystem research. It turned out to be a frustrating experience for a number of
reasons, and the discussion was not only inconclusive but also brought to mind
the old story about the blind men trying to visualize an elephant from a discon­
nected set of tactile impressions (Hedgpeth, 1977d). Yet the need to develop re­
search approaches that can provide us with predictive information and support
conclusions on which to base management decisions in our pollution-ridden world
are very much with us. In spite of the considerable body of knowledge that has
been built up about the North Sea, for example, we still do not have the right in­
formation on which to base predictions for management. Here is a body of water
lying between the highly industrialized and heavily populated continent of Europe
and Great Britain, which has been treated ever since modern civilization devel­
oped as a waste disposal sink, yet does not seem to be dangerously polluted
(Goldberg, 1973). After a century of research, we cannot manage this region as a
natural interaction of biological and physical factors, and indeed the question
was raised, appropriately, by a gentleman from Vienna: are ecosystems real enti-
Copyright ® 1978 by Academic Press, Inc.
•J All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
ISBN 0-12-751850-9
4 J. W. Hedgpeth
ties, or concepts associated with the ordering nature of our mind?
Of course, all our concepts of nature are simplifications or abstractions
and are "to some extent therefore a fairy tale," as the meteorologist Sir Napier
Shaw said. This quotation, which introduces the chapter on the concepts of ma­
rine ecology that I wrote twenty years ago (and now is somewhat out of date), is
the most important, and evidently least read, part of that attempt to summarize
matters (Hedgpeth, 1957). The latest word for this process of simplification
appears to be paradigm, which the dictionary tells me means "example, model or
pattern," but which in some recent usage seems to mean something else, an
exemplary abstraction arrived at by a process of "capsulization," which sounds
like some idealization of abstract values and virtues. Perhaps some of the people
who use this word these days have never looked it up in the dictionary and have
it confused with paladin. In any event, according to the document, "An ecosys­
tem paradigm for ecology" (P. L. Johnson etal., 1977), the ecological paradigm
is comprised of "statements and discussion." They do conclude, which is more to
the point of this discussion, that "ecologically controlling variables are only par­
tially within man's grasp." But do we need to "grasp variables"? An unfortunate
word in this context, since it brings to mind grasping at straws. I am also afraid
that this capsulogenous proclivity will not encourage those who have been ex­
posed to an undergraduate course in ecology, and have since become bureaucrats
and/or administrators (the terms are not necessarily synonymous), to keep up
with the subject.
Whatever the ecosystem may be, or how complicated, or whether it is
simply another word for the natural world we are part of, there are obviously too
many things going on to study all of them or gather data on everything at once
and ask the computer to tell us what it all means. Our concern is to understand
the environment well enought to make predictions and hope to manage it, or at
least control ourselves and our actions so that we will not find ourselves living on
a vast dung heap beside a vaster cesspool. Such understanding and ultimate man­
agement is incompatible with political exigencies, the need for the quick fix.
Things must be done, or at least appear to be done, between elections or budgets,
to justify renewed incumbencies or refunded budgets. Most scientists refuse to
consider this illogical approach to environmental management significant or even
worth mentioning at all. Yet this sudden death urgency governs much of the de­
mand for convincing data to support decisions, preferably by yesterday. And, of
course, the sensible advice that if you do not know what the effect of an action
or of a possible pollutant is going to be, you should not do it or use it, is un­
acceptable in our economic or political structure. We have to keep our hubristic,
anthropocentric system going: "When it becomes a choice between ecology and
people, people must go." A recent circular, soliciting subscriptions for a new
magazine about the ocean, put this very clearly: "Our aim is to contribute to a
wider public understanding of the oceans and to a greater appreciation of how
they can serve us, today and in the future." Whoever wrote this bit of advertising
copy has forgotton that even King Canute was unable to order the ocean to do