Subproject 2: Climate Variability and Exchange of Materials between Maryland Coastal Bays and Coastal Ocean
Project Leader: Margaret Sexton
Other Investigators:
- Meng Xia, Ph.D. (UMES)
- Paulinus Chigbu, Ph.D. (UMES)
- Nianhong Chen, Ph.D. (UMES)
- Maurice Crawford, Ph.D. (UMES)
- Chunlei Fan, Ph.D. (MSU)
- Shuiwang Duan, Ph.D. (UMD –College Park)
Project Goals
- Compare physico-chemical conditions, and plankton composition and abundance between dead-end canals, surrounding waters in the MCBs, and the coastal ocean
- Evaluate the exchange of materials between MCBs and the coastal ocean
- Assess the effects of wind and tidal current on gelatinous zooplankton and ichthyoplankton biomass dispersal
Project Summary
We propose to characterize exchanges of materials between the coastal ocean, the Maryland Coastal Bays (MCBs), and dead-end canals and how climate variability affects these exchanges. Monthly monitoring will be used to compare physico-chemical conditions and plankton composition and abundance between dead-end canals, surrounding waters in the MCBs, and the coastal ocean. A tracer study will be used to characterize the exchange of water between the dead-end canals and the surrounding waters; and intensive, weekly sampling will examine ingress and retention of ichthyoplankton. These sampling efforts will be used to inform the development of a hydrodynamic model to describe the movement of water, salt, heat, and turbulence in the MCBs and to parameterize a particle tracking model that will be applied to gelatinous zooplankton and ichthyoplankton to better understand their distribution, movement, and retention in the estuary as well as variability related to climatic factors.
