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Stratigraphic Evidence of Human Disturbance in an Estuary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Grace S. Brush  and
Frank W. Davis
Grace S. Brush
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
Frank W. Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
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Abstract

Prior to European settlement, oligohaline and mesohaline sections of Chesapeake Bay draining Piedmont saprolite supported diverse and abundant diatom and macrophyte populations. Compositional changes in diatoms and macrophytes in oligohaline sections correspond with 17th- and 19th-century deforestation and increased siltation, while effects on downstream populations were less notable. After deforestation, previously sparse diatom populations in a mesohaline estuary draining sandy Coastal Plain soils became more abundant. Fertilization of cultivated land was accompanied by increased production of both attached and free-floating diatoms. After the discharge of sewage, diatom populations increased enormously in the affected areas, followed by a dramatic decrease. The decrease suggests silica limitation after intense phosphorus enrichment. The loss of macrophytes and increase in planktonic diatoms in oligohaline areas in recent years resemble the historical sequences observed in lakes undergoing eutrophication. However, in the estuary, similar declines have also occurred in macrophyte populations in mesohaline areas where eutrophication is much less severe, but where chlorine and herbicide toxicity during the past 20 yr is similar to upstream areas.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , July 1984 , pp. 91 - 108
Copyright
University of Washington

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