Floating Anthropogenic Debris in Estuarine Systems

Presentation Type

Poster

Full Name of Faculty Mentor

Till Hanebuth, Marine Science; Renata Nagai, Universidade Federal do Paraná

Major

Marine Science

Presentation Abstract

Floating anthropogenic debris (FAD) accumulation is a growing but understudied environmental issue within estuarine ecosystems. Assumedly, estuaries do not only act as a major FAD sink, but storm and flooding events might lead to major FAD remobilization, relocation, concentration, and export. This project aims at gathering insight on the dynamics of FAD distribution in an SC estuary (Little River/Waties Island) as the result of a storm surge event (Hurricane Ian in September 2022). The dynamics of interest include: logged surge level and dynamics; pre-event distribution of FAD, post-event FAD accumulation pattern; duration and conditions necessary to newly accumulate FAD at pre-event locations. We installed a 15-min interval water logger and monitored the FAD dynamics before and after Hurricane Ian. While FAD was found in high concentrations together with large amounts of marsh grass debris at the high-water lines at all monitoring sites, the up to 8-ft high hurricane-related surge led to two unexpected effects: a) Major amounts of positively buoyant FAD of any size were lifted up, depleting the loading of the marsh over the whole estuary, and concentrated the material solely within a well-confined surge debris line; b) Larger amounts of cm-sized negatively buoyant FAD appeared within the swash zone of the jetty beach as a kind of bottom boundary layer in rich association with plant litter. The resulting questions about the long-term fate of the light FAD dumped at the debris surge line as well as origin and fate of the bottom FAD are in the focus now.

Start Date

11-4-2023 10:00 AM

End Date

11-4-2023 12:00 PM

Disciplines

Oceanography

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Apr 11th, 10:00 AM Apr 11th, 12:00 PM

Floating Anthropogenic Debris in Estuarine Systems

Floating anthropogenic debris (FAD) accumulation is a growing but understudied environmental issue within estuarine ecosystems. Assumedly, estuaries do not only act as a major FAD sink, but storm and flooding events might lead to major FAD remobilization, relocation, concentration, and export. This project aims at gathering insight on the dynamics of FAD distribution in an SC estuary (Little River/Waties Island) as the result of a storm surge event (Hurricane Ian in September 2022). The dynamics of interest include: logged surge level and dynamics; pre-event distribution of FAD, post-event FAD accumulation pattern; duration and conditions necessary to newly accumulate FAD at pre-event locations. We installed a 15-min interval water logger and monitored the FAD dynamics before and after Hurricane Ian. While FAD was found in high concentrations together with large amounts of marsh grass debris at the high-water lines at all monitoring sites, the up to 8-ft high hurricane-related surge led to two unexpected effects: a) Major amounts of positively buoyant FAD of any size were lifted up, depleting the loading of the marsh over the whole estuary, and concentrated the material solely within a well-confined surge debris line; b) Larger amounts of cm-sized negatively buoyant FAD appeared within the swash zone of the jetty beach as a kind of bottom boundary layer in rich association with plant litter. The resulting questions about the long-term fate of the light FAD dumped at the debris surge line as well as origin and fate of the bottom FAD are in the focus now.