Effect of Hurricane Florence on Winyah Bay's Planktonic Population
Presentation Type
Event
Full Name of Faculty Mentor
George Boneillo
Major
Marine Science
Minor
Biology
Presentation Abstract
Due to the increase of severe storms hitting the Atlantic coast over the years, it has been increasingly more vital to look into how these severe storms affect coastal estuaries ecosystems and watersheds across the eastern seaboard. Over a 12-week time period (8/26/2018-11/11/2018), we collected data on temperature, salinity, turbidity, secchi, dissolved oxygen (O2), chlorophyll, phytoplankton, and zooplankton in the upper, middle, and lower bay of Winyah Bay. Three weeks after Hurricane Florence, the large input of freshwater caused salinity and temperature to decrease at all stations. Bottom O2 had also decreased to 1.15mg/L in the upper bay, making parts of the bay hypoxic. The river runoff decrease chlorophyll concentrations and caused the demise of a long-standing Skeletonema bloom, which had started during the summer. The storm also affected zooplankton composition as the population, which was originally dominated by copepods and larvae, became dominated by freshwater ostracods.
Course
MSCI 399: Winyah Bay monitoring
Location
Lib Jackson Student Union, Atrium
Start Date
16-4-2019 12:30 PM
End Date
16-4-2019 2:30 PM
Disciplines
Oceanography
Recommended Citation
Palek, Zachary, "Effect of Hurricane Florence on Winyah Bay's Planktonic Population" (2019). Undergraduate Research Competition. 36.
https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/ugrc/2019/poster/36
Effect of Hurricane Florence on Winyah Bay's Planktonic Population
Lib Jackson Student Union, Atrium
Due to the increase of severe storms hitting the Atlantic coast over the years, it has been increasingly more vital to look into how these severe storms affect coastal estuaries ecosystems and watersheds across the eastern seaboard. Over a 12-week time period (8/26/2018-11/11/2018), we collected data on temperature, salinity, turbidity, secchi, dissolved oxygen (O2), chlorophyll, phytoplankton, and zooplankton in the upper, middle, and lower bay of Winyah Bay. Three weeks after Hurricane Florence, the large input of freshwater caused salinity and temperature to decrease at all stations. Bottom O2 had also decreased to 1.15mg/L in the upper bay, making parts of the bay hypoxic. The river runoff decrease chlorophyll concentrations and caused the demise of a long-standing Skeletonema bloom, which had started during the summer. The storm also affected zooplankton composition as the population, which was originally dominated by copepods and larvae, became dominated by freshwater ostracods.