Knauss legislative fellowships in Congress help build careers — and they're fun and educational. See our video and fact sheet for details.
The Maryland Sea Grant bookstore is closed from December 10 to January 3.
Research Publications: UM-SG-RS-2003-27
Title:
The location, composition, and origin of oyster bars in mesohaline Chesapeake Bay.
Year:
2003Authors:
Smith, GF; Roach, EB; Bruce, DGSource:
Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science 56 ( 2 ) : 391 - 409DOI:
10.1016/S0272-7714(02)00191-9Abstract:
Sub-bottom profiling sonar surveys in the mesohaline Chesapeake Bay located pre-Holocene, hard terrace structures surrounded by or buried by softer sediments. The descending scarps of these hard terraces frequently correspond to the boundaries of charted oyster bars. The terraces are composed of a base of coarse Tertiary or Pleistocene sediments and may be covered by a layer of oyster shell, shell grit or mud. The presence of soft, methane gas-charged sediments adjacent to descending terrace scarps indicates that terrace/oyster bar configuration is due to the segmentation of the larger regional terrace structure by paleochannel drainage. These sediment filled channels, relicts of the last glacial period, extend into the estuary far beyond the current terrestrial shores and demarcate the oyster bar boundaries. Continual filling of the paleochannels segregating oyster bars, both by fluvial transport as well as in situ production of sediment, has lead to a decrease in relief in the terrace scarp profile. At some locations sediments are burying or have buried oyster bar terraces. Although widespread reduction of oyster bar relief in the Chesapeake Bay has been attributed to harvest activity, statistical analysis of bathymetry does not clearly support this premise. Our findings suggest that oyster habitat restoration should take place only on the clearly identified, hard terraces away from encroaching bottom sediments.
Related Research Project(s) Funded by Maryland Sea Grant:
Maryland Sea Grant Topic(s):
'Related Research Project(s)' link to details about research projects funded by Maryland Sea Grant that led to this publication. These details may include other impacts and accomplishments resulting from the research.
'Maryland Sea Grant Topic(s)' links to related pages on the Maryland Sea Grant website.
Program Announcements
News and Blogs
Featured Fellow
Leone Yisrael is a cephalopod-loving scuba diver, cook, and loves to try new activities. She conducts genetic analysis and fieldwork at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center through the Coastal Disease Ecology Lab.
Featured Research Project
Developing a habitat model for mysids, an important link in Chesapeake Bay food webs
Mysids are important mesozooplankton prey for many species of fish in Chesapeake Bay and are an important link in transferring energy from lower to upper trophic levels. Mysids also serve as biological vectors for benthic-pelagic coupling due to their diel vertical migration and omnivorous prey-switching behavior, which makes mysids important regulators of food web architecture. Despite their central role in coastal food webs, surprisingly little is known about mysid ecology and dynamics in Chesapeake Bay.
