I have just finished reading the section entitled “messing
about in boats” in Tom Horton’s Bay Country (John Hopkins University Press) and was tickled as to how well it
captured our summer field work to date.
Our group, which consists of members of CES and WC Depts. of Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Studies is interested in understanding how the Chester River ecosystem functions
and what state of “health” it is in. Clearly this pursuit raises a lot of questions
and initiates much discussion
among our group. (Questions like: How long does the water
stay in the Chester? How much of
what is happening in the Chester River is the result of “stuff” happening in
the Chesapeake Bay?) So, as a start, we are collecting surface sediment all
along the Chester River and will be determining the amount of “things” in it;
things like lead, copper, silver, zinc, (and other elements), organic carbon, and what is living in
the sediments. Some of what we find may help us reconstruct where the sediments
may have come from and where they are accumulating now. Any large organisms we
find living in the sediment (benthos) are saved. Later we hope to see if there
are any patterns of contaminant accumulation in these organisms. We do all of this
by taking a “ponar” grab (see photo) and collecting only the upper 1-2 cm (recent)
of surface sediment. Thus, I have
been seeing a lot about this river from the water; trying, similar to John
Smith’s agenda, to reach up creek as far as our boats will allow. And this takes me back to Horton’s
“messing about in boats”. Much of the Bay is very shallow, especially the “upper creek” areas. (..and
yes, if you have to ask, I have
been stuck a few times and needed to wait for the tide). One constant throughout
this effort is that the Chester River mud is quite messy. Anyway, here is CES’s progress (via red
triangles) on this front so far:
Christian Krahforst is the Mellon Post Doctoral
Fellow of Biogeochemistry for the
Center for Environment & Society at Washington College.
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