Wednesday, All Day in Poster Hall
, Thursday, All Day in Poster Hall
(subject to change)
High nutrient groundwater is a threat to estuaries and coastal waters around the globe. In 1986 the Town of Falmouth began disposing of secondary treated wastewater at a site 1.3 km from West Falmouth Harbor (WFH). It was assumed that the forest and aquifer would adequately remove the high nitrogen (N) load during the anticipated 10 year travel time to the harbor, however later studies suggest otherwise. Now, two decades later, a plume of high nutrient groundwater has reached WFH. In an effort to characterize the groundwater contribution and its affects on the harbor, we installed a series of multi-depth wells along the shoreline to monitor groundwater inputs to the harbor and determine soil retention and denitrification rates using N2/Argon and nitrate analyses. These 32 wells, along with the 19 watershed wells installed in 1986, should provide an accurate representation of the plume’s composition, travel time, as well as the aquifer’s diminishing ability to process the heavy N loading. In addition, we are investigating how benthic respiration and nutrient fluxes are altered by seagrass loss due to eutrophication. Of particular interest is the benthic microalgae response as the system shifts from one dominated by seagrasses to one dominated by macroalgae.
