Good Ol' River Mud

"Tributaries Matter: Investigating the Biogeochemical Cycling of Reactive Constituents
in Sub-estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay"

I'll be honest. I wasn't sure exactly what I was in for with a lecture titled, "Tributaries Matter: Investigating Biogeochemical Cycling of Reactive Constituents in Sub-estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay." I was pretty confident I knew what a tributary was...and an estuary, but all that stuff in the middle? Not a clue. Yesterday we were fortunate to host Commander Joseph Smith from the US Naval Academy who was going to answer all my questions. We settled in to Litrenta, sat back, and learned some astonishing things about watersheds and sediment movement.

CDR Smith began his discussion with the Hudson River. All the way back to his time as a graduate student he has been studying the movement of sediment in estuaries. What he has learned has astonished his advisers and the wider scientific community. Instead of being like a pipe that dumps water into the oceans, estuaries experience constant movement of sediment toward the ocean and back toward the land. One example in particular encapsulated the importance of this multi-directional movement. In 2006 the Navy attempted to relocate the legendary World War II aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, but after a half hour of effort from a small fleet of tugboats, it became apparent that the ship was stuck in the mud! CDR Smith explained that this was a result of sediment being deposited in the harbor from upriver and from the ocean. The amount of sediment that settled around the ship worked out to be about 20 inches a year. This event, which confirmed CDR Smith's theory of high sedimentation rates, astonished the scientific community.

USS Intrepid with tugboats

Taking what he has learned about the tendency for estuaries to pick up materials, CDR Smith has focused his studies on nearby Blue Plains Advanced Waste water Treatment Plant to determine what sort of impact the waste water is having on the Chesapeake Bay. Specifically CDR Smith has been looking at a specific element Iodine 131. He was quick to point out that the levels at which he studied I131 were well below the levels that would cause any harm to surrounding populations. CDR Smith has been tracing I131 because it has comparable qualities (radioactive half-life) to other more harmful substances. This means that CDR Smith can more accurately model what would happen if one of the more harmful materials (heavy metals, pesticides, certain nutrients etc.) were to be released into the Bay's Watershed.

Among the many insights that Smith has gained through his work is the fact that environmental factors have a huge impact on the movement of these potentially harmful materials. Wind speed, wind direction, temperature, and pH are just a few of the factors that can influence the spread of these materials. In order to form a more complete model CDR Smith and CES Associate Director Doug Levin are working together to monitor every aspect of the Chester and the Severn. Among the many pieces of technology being used in this ambitious project are buoys that constantly collect data, and autonomous kayaks that will be able to independently patrol the rivers. This project, when completed, will make these two rivers the best known rivers in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and potentially the entire United States.

Chesapeake Bay

Article written by Rachel Field, Program and Intern Coordinator for Washington College's Center for Environment & Society. 

Other than water, what does the rain bring?

No alarm needed this morning.   Thunder was crackling and rain falling well before the 6 a.m. clang of the set clock.  Rainfall on the eastern shore evokes different feelings for different people.  Farmers, for example, are happy that their parched corn might survive to adulthood. My mind then moves to the ramification of the rain in the Chester River Watershed, where the drops hit and and, ultimately,  what it collects as it flows down hill off the fields and into the Bay. It’s a light rain so it’s unlikely that there will be runoff.  Where will the water end up and what will it bring with it?

Yesterday I was over at Foremans Branch on Chino Farms in Chestertown talking with Ted Kimble and Henry Davis about siting a most sophisticated water quality sampling station.  Ted’s going to work with Choptank Electric to drop the electric service in, that will power the station.  Henry will work his magic clearing the long grass and shrubs so the system can be installed and serviced without a threat of contracting poison ivy.  We’re talking with Dr. Jim Gruber to make sure that this project doesn’t interfere with his bird banding research.  We also had to know how high the water gets during slamming rainfall that happens during Nor’easters and hurricanes. So much to do before we take our first sample.

The fancy gizmo will pump water quietly from Foremans Branch to the sensors and then gravity will whisk it back to whence it came. The sensors will let us know what is coming off of the fields and through the grounds from the farm, woods, and grasslands into the water.  During dry times we’ll know that the contributions we’re measuring are leaking into the water through the ground.  When it rains we originally would have expected to see spikes in stuff coming into the water because of runoff.  Our friend Judy Denver up at USGS says that’s probably not the case. We’ll likely see water quality improve during these “freshets”. That’s because the additional water dilutes the nutrients and other “additives” from the farms and roads.  Even though the water quality improves, the volume of water flowing through the system is so high that, overall, the amount of extraneous materials entering the system is still elevated. Look at it this way.  If you have a gallon of water with a pound of sugar in it, it tastes like sugar water.  If you have five gallons of water with two pounds of sugar in it, there is more sugar, but it doesn’t taste as sweet.  So rain and runoff probably worsens water quality.  Doug, did you say “Probably?”.  Yes, I did. 

Once we install this Hach Water Quality measuring station we’ll investigate the truth of this assertion.  Water temperature, salinity, conductivity, pH (acidity), dissolved oxygen, turbidity (how dirty the water is), nutrient content, and water level data will be sent to our website every fifteen minutes.  Coupled with a weather station on the farm we’ll be able to see the relationship between rainfall and water quality.  Communicating with the farm we’ll be able to see how farming practices, including fertilizer application, relates to changes in the chemistry of the water flowing through Foremans Branch down to the Chester River.  We’re hoping to have this information on line for everyone to see.  This will change that "Probably" to an answer with more certainty. I’ll let you know when we throw the switch.  Get in touch if you have questions. Doug Levin is the  Associate Director, Center for Environment & Society @ Washington College and can be reached at dlevin2@washcoll.edu.

This is the site where we originally thought the water quality installation was going.

This photo taken at flood stage convinced us to place the system up the hill from the bridge.

Boats, Buoys, and Underwater Robots- Oh My..

“Okay, we’re almost on station. Will, get your team in gear,” I offered as Captain Mike eased back on the throttle of the Research Vessel Callinectes. On this third day of the CES GIS Marine Exploration Camp (June 25-29) the students were already in gear. Grab the GPS, the ponar, the clipboard. The Callinectes sidles up to a point selected by the participant team. The captain moves to the back deck pilot station. Dan opens the transom door. Scott (age 17) arms the spring loaded ponar with the jaws open. Jackie (15) notes and records the GPS position from her handheld device and compares it to the boat gps. Will (age 13) lowers the pressure transducer to the bottom and verifies the 24ft depth noted on the ship’s echosounder. Kelsey (15) writes fervently, recording on paper, all of the goings-on and takes pictures of each sample.

Scott lowers the ponar to the Bay floor. He jerks the line a little and feels the jaws of the sampler close. With help from others he hoists the sampler back to the deck, up and over the transom and into the waiting plastic tray. He pushes down on the contraption, the jaws open, and oodles of sediment and stuff pour out. “Rangia,” he exclaims, “I love these Atlantic Rangia.” Will, Jackie, Kelsey, and Scott drop to their knees. Scott describes: “Sandy silt with frequent disarticulated Rangia shells.” He notes that “disarticulated” means that he sees a whole “half” of a clam. It’s not fragmented. Articulated would mean that he’s got both halves, connected as a whole clam, in hand. Sandy-silt means that there is more silt than sand. The Marine Exploration team completes this dance of bottom sampling ten more times up the Chester River from the mouth all the way to Crumpton.

The results of this mapping exercise, along with other day’s experiences building buoys and underwater robots were shared with the entire GIS camp the Saturday after the week-long experience. “This was the best camp experience I’ll have this summer,” exclaimed Will, the team leader of “Will Power” the Camp’s Marine Exploration Team Leader.

GIS Lab
Callinectes

Doug Levin is the Associate Director of the Center for Environment & Society.

Associate Director Doug Levin to Blog for National Geographic

Deep Sea Challenge

Associate Director Doug Levin will be bloggging for National Geographic's "Deep Sea Challenge." Explorer James Cameron will travel deep below the ocean, while Dr. Levin translates the information gathered for readers. From the National Geographic website: "We know less about the deepest points on our planet than we do about the surface of Mars. The DEEPSEA CHALLENGE team is dedicated to advancing the world’s understanding of our ocean’s vast range of biological and geological phenomena. The historic expedition to the Mariana Trench’s lowest point, the Challenger Deep, which lies 6.83 miles (10.99 kilometers) below the ocean surface, is the first extensive scientific exploration in a manned submersible of the deepest spot on Earth. Piloting the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, which is outfitted for scientific exploration, James Cameron will conduct tests, collect samples, and document the experience in the high-resolution 3-D for which he’s known globally."