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Article Excerpt
ABSTRACT. A long-term comprehensive monitoring program is underway to assess epibenthic community structure and dynamics in the coastal bays of New Jersey. This effort is part of major initiatives of both the Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program and Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve Program to monitor water quality and biotic communities in the coastal bays. Data collected by the monitoring program will be used to delineate patterns of short-term variability and long-term changes in the estuarine environment. The main objective is to generate databases that will be useful to resource managers for tracking the ecological condition and function of New Jersey coastal environments.
An initial investigation of the temporal and spatial settlement patterns of epibionts on aluminum sampling panels at one of the study sites (i.e., Buoy 126 in Great Bay)found that blue mussels numerically dominated the epibenthic community from May to July and calcareous bryozoans predominated from September to November. Blue mussels exhibited the greatest variation in abundance, rapidly colonizing the panel surfaces in spring and early summer and then abruptly disappearing by mid summer. Other epifauna (i.e., barnacles, polychaetes, and mud crabs), while present during the study period, were not numerically significant. Among macroalgae, Agardhiella sp. was abundant in June, but absent thereafter. Results of this 6.5-month field experiment showed considerable variations in settlement, recruitment, and post-recruitment events of epibenthic organisms in the bay. Such results have important implications for the biofouling of hard substrates in the bay. An expansion of this epifaunal community study, incorporating seven additional sampling sites in Great Bay, Little Egg Harbor, and Barnegat Bay, commenced in June 2003, and the findings will be reported in 2004.
KEY WORDS: Great Bay, settlement panels, epibenthic organisms, population abundance, temporal variation, community development
INTRODUCTION
The monitoring of water quality, biotic communities, and habitats is an integral component of both the Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program and the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve Program. These two federally funded initiatives are dedicated to the maintenance, protection, restoration, and enhancement of natural resources in New Jersey coastal bays (Kennish, 2000, 2003). A well-designed and effectively implemented monitoring effort is necessary to accurately assess the status and trends of water quality, living resources, and habitats in the coastal bays of New Jersey. The long-term health and viability of these critically important estuarine systems depends on delineating environmental problems, mitigating anthropogenic impacts, and revitalizing damaged components. Monitoring is an essential part of identifying degraded estuarine environments, determining the effectiveness of abatement strategies, and addressing resource management concerns. As noted by the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (2002), a major goal of monitoring is to identify and track short-term variability and long-term changes in the integrity and biodiversity of representative estuarine ecosystems and coastal watersheds for the purpose of contributing to effective national, regional, and site-specific coastal zone management.
The Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program encompasses the waters of the Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor Estuary. It overlaps a portion of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, which extends from the southern part of Barnegat Bay (Manahawkin Bridge) to Absecon Bay, and includes Little Egg Harbor, Great Bay, Little Bay, and Reeds Bay. The two programs therefore cover most of the back-bay areas bordering the New Jersey mainland.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MONITORING PROGRAM
The Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program and Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve Program...
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