1:00 pm
2:00 pm
Conference Center 127
6300 Ocean Drive, Corpus Christi, TX 78412
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-CORPUS CHRISTI
SUBJECT: Nitrogen and Phosphorous Budgets in Estuaries of the Texas Coast
MAJOR ADVISOR: Dr. Paul Montagna
ABSTRACT
Estuaries are highly valuable ecosystems that depend on nutrients for their productivity. On-going urbanization and socio-economic activities are constantly affecting nutrient dynamics and estuarine organisms. The purpose of this study was to determine how hydrology affects nutrient budgets in Texas estuaries through biogeochemical budget modeling under the land-ocean interaction in the coastal zone (LOICZ) guidelines. LOICZ budgets were applied to the 7 major estuaries in Texas to address the long-term data of water, salt, and nutrients to calculate daily averages using various datasets from multiple agencies. The results revealed that the climate gradient plays a large role in the water budgets showing that precipitation is a main driving factor to residual flow rates. In addition, residual outflow is a main driving factor to salinity averages among these estuaries. The stochiometric relationships between nonconservative materials in the budgets revealed that net ecosystem metabolism in all 7 major estuaries exhibited to be autotrophic. In a case study of the Sabine Neches and the Nueces Estuary comparing daily average residual flow and nutrients by month, there was no indication of a strong monotonic relationship between the two, however comparing the daily average nutrient loads from the river segments and the flux of nutrients in each bay system there is a general trend of increasing nutrient loads with increasing nutrient fluxes. However, seasonal and interannual nutrient variations and accumulations still remain unclear in the Texas estuaries due to lack of data consistency.
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ZOOM DETAILS
https://tamucc.zoom.us/j/92031924091?pwd=SDFES1lsYkFuYkJyWEVDMit2ZzBhZz09
Meeting ID: 920 3192 4091
Passcode: b0M0kt