Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Ware River Intensive Watershed Study Data Files - Part 2. Estuarine Receiving Water Quality, Gary F. Anderson

Data

The Ware River is a small coastal estuary draining into the Chesapeake Bay estuary. VIMS monitored the Ware watershed for rain events, runoff, and impacts to the estuary from April 1979 through July 1981. This entry contains the estuarine receiving water quality monitoring data files for the portion of the study known as Part 2 – Estuarine Receiving Water Quality. A set of stations on the tidal estuarine portion of the river were sampled by-monthly during high slack tide events. The stations were also sampled during 24-hour ‘intensive surveys’ and immediately following storm events to document impacts. Methods and results …

Influence Of Salinity On Sav Distribution In A Series Of Intermittently Connected Coastal Lakes, A. Challen Hyman, Rom Lipcius, R. Gray, D. B. Stephens

VIMS Articles

Intermittently closed and open lakes and lagoons (ICOLLs) are coastal lakes that intermittently exchange water with the sea and experience saline intrusions. Understanding effects of seawater exchange on local biota is important to preserve ecosystem functioning and ecological integrity. Coastal dune lakes of northwest Florida are an understudied group of ICOLLs in close geographic proximity and with entrance regimes operating along a frequency continuum. We exploited this natural continuum and corresponding water chemistry gradient to determine effects of water chemistry on resident submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) distributions in these ecosystems. SAV distribution decreased with increases in salinity, but was unaffected …

Virginia Seafood Sustainability, Samantha E. Askin, Robert A. Fisher

Reports

Virginia’s commercial fisheries operate sustainability under a suite of management tools based upon information received from marine scientists and fishery managers who regularly conduct biological sampling of fish while tracking commercial landings and other gathering of required information. Analyses of fishing effort and overall stock conditions, as well as formulas designed to calculate threshold limits for maintaining sustainable stocks are regularly performed. Restrictions on seasons, size, days at sea, and gear are imposed as needed to achieve management supporting long-term biological sustainability.

Winter Harbor Dredge Channel Data Report, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Cameron Green

Reports

Winter Harbor is a tidal creek that flows between a sandy barrier system and an eroding marsh shoreline. It is an important waterway that provides access to the Chesapeake Bay from the Winter Harbor watershed. In the past, Winter Harbor Inlet was the only hydraulic connection from the Winter Harbor watershed and Chesapeake Bay. The two open water areas of Winter Harbor were separated by marsh channels that hydraulically connected to the mouth at the present-day Winter Harbor Inlet. The federally-defined channel at Winter Harbor was authorized by Congress in 1950. It was authorized as a 12 feet (ft) deep, …

Data Collection At Fifteen Selected Creeks In Support Of Shallow Water Dredging On Virginia’S Middle Peninsula - Methods & Data Report, Nicholas J. Dinapoli, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Cameron Green, Scott Lerberg, Eduardo J. Miles, Alex Demeo, George Brooks

Reports

Federal funding has been historically available for the Army Corps of Engineers for shallow draft navigation projects. However, past and recent subsidies have not provided ample funding at levels to sustain maintenance dredging for the 17 federal navigation channels on the Middle Peninsula. Further, funding for maintenance of non-federal channels has been historically neglected by the Commonwealth of Virginia until the Virginia General Assembly established the Virginia Waterway Maintenance Fund in 2018. For the past decade the Middle Peninsula Chesapeake Bay Public Access Authority, the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission and its member jurisdictions, and the Virginia Institute of Marine …

Cedarbush Creek Dredge Channel Data Report, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Cameron Green

Reports

Cedarbush Creek is located in Gloucester County, Virginia. It is a long, but narrow creek that empties into the York River. The mouth is a wide embayment, but farther north, the creek narrows to about 400 feet wide and extends for about 1.5 miles to its marshy headwaters. Cedarbush Creek has never been dredged, but due to shoaling within the creek, it needs dredging to accommodate vessel traffic. Oliver’s Landing, located near the mouth of Cedarbush Creek, is a working waterfront that supports commercial and recreational boaters in Gloucester. (...)

Living Shoreline Design Guidelines For Shore Protection In Virginia’S Estuarine Environment, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Donna A. Milligan, Karen Duhring

Reports

The Chesapeake Bay has about 6.5 million people living in its coastal counties and much of the shoreline is privately-owned. For communities along the shore, the continual shore retreat may be a problem. When land along the shore show signs of erosion, property owners tend to address it.

These guidelines are meant to address the need to educate consultants, contractors, and other professionals in the use of living shoreline strategies. It provides the necessary information to determine where they are appropriate and what is involved in their design and construction. The guidelines focus on the use of created marsh fringes …

Parrotts Creek Dredge Channel Data Report, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Cameron W. Green

Reports

Parrotts Creek is located along the Rappahannock River in Middlesex County, VA. The mouth of the creek is about 850 ft wide, but just inside the mouth of the creek, a spit extends from the upland narrowing the creek to about 300 ft before it widens again. Overall, this is a relatively short, undeveloped creek. Most of the development (wharfs, ramps, piers) occur near the mouth. Most of the more inland areas of the creek are surrounded by woodland. The federally-authorized channel was established in 1955 due to the presence of a public ramp and landing area, as well as …

Effects Of Tidal Flooding On Estuarine Biogeochemistry: Quantifying Flood-Driven Nitrogen Inputs In An Urban, Lower Chesapeake Bay Sub-Tributary, Alfonso Macías-Tapia, Margaret R. Mulholland, Corday R. Selden, Jon Derek Loftis, Peter W. Bernhardt

VIMS Articles

Sea level rise has increased the frequency of tidal flooding even without accompanying precipitation in many coastal areas worldwide. As the tide rises, inundates the landscape, and then recedes, it can transport organic and inorganic matter between terrestrial systems and adjacent aquatic environments. However, the chemical and biological effects of tidal flooding on urban estuarine systems remain poorly constrained. Here, we provide the first extensive quantification of floodwater nutrient concentrations during a tidal flooding event and estimate the nitrogen (N) loading to the Lafayette River, an urban tidal sub-tributary of the lower Chesapeake Bay (USA). To enable the scale of …

Living Shoreline Sea-Level Resiliency: Performance And Adaptive Management Of Existing Sites Year 3 Summary Report, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Nick J. Dinapoli

Reports

The focus of this study was to research the resiliency of rock/sand/plant living shoreline protection systems. These systems have been used in Chesapeake Bay for 40 years to reduce erosion, protect infrastructure, and create habitat that is disappearing from the shoreline as sea level rises. The goal was to determine how they have been affected by storm surge and associated wind-driven waves, sea-level rise. This data informed adaptive management strategies to create site-specific morphologically-resilient projects.

The objectives of this 3-year project is monitoring the effectiveness of nature-based resilience projects over time such as those that use hybrid living shoreline management …

Coastal Natural And Nature-Based Features (Nnbfs) Ranked: Co-Benefits For Coastal Buildings And Target Areas For The Creation Of New Or Restoration Of Nnbfs In Coastal Virginia, Pamela Mason, Jessica Hendricks, Julie Herman

Data

Community resilience to storm-driven coastal flooding is improved with the presence of natural and nature-based features (NNBFs) such as wetlands, wooded areas, living shorelines, and beaches. These natural and created features can provide multiple benefits for a local community, including mitigating the impacts of storm surge and sea-level rise and allowing communities to take advantage of programmatic incentive programs like FEMA’s Community Rating System and nutrient reduction crediting.

As part of a NOAA-funded project NA17NOS4730142, an exportable geospatial protocol and NNBF ranking methodology was developed with the goal of incentivizing the protection and creation of NNBFs across Chesapeake Bay localities …

“Garden-Magic”: Conceptions Of Nature In Edith Wharton’S Fiction, Jonathan Malks

Undergraduate Honors Theses

I situate Edith Wharton’s guiding idea of “garden-magic” at the center of my thesis because Wharton’s fiction shows how a garden space could naturalize otherwise inadmissible behaviors within upper-class society while helping a character tie such behavior to a greater possibility for escape. To this end, Wharton situates gardens as idealized touchstones within the built environment of New York City, spaces where characters believe they can reach self-actualization within a version of nature that is man-made. Actualization, in this sense, stems from a character’s imaginative escape that is enabled by a perception of the garden as a kind of natural …

Three Centuries Of Vegetation Change In The William & Mary College Woods Reconstructed Using Phytoliths, Timothy Terlizzi

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The College Woods, west of William & Mary’s campus, consists of ~900 acres of protected southern mixed hardwood forest. The woods surround Lake Matoaka, a former millpond established in ~1700. Despite the rich history of the area, little is known about how the dominant vegetative landcover has shifted over the last 300 years. This study set out to quantify the modern vegetation within the College Woods via the phytolith assemblages within the soil and identify shifts in the assemblages since the creation of Lake Matoaka and whether these changes are distinct from the vegetation that existed in the area before …

Contentious Vulnerability: Infrastructure, Assemblages, And Environmental Justice Communities, Mads Emmett

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Charles City County, Virginia has been the target of several large developmental proposals in recent years. Two of these proposed projects, the C4GT and Chickahominy natural gas power stations, have faced opposition from residents of Charles City County and people across the state who are concerned about the environmental impacts and health risks associated with fossil fuel infrastructure. These proposed power plants are part of an extensive assemblage of infrastructure: an uneven built network of physical and affective relationships brought together through contingencies which involves human and non-human parts and facilitates the distribution of resources and people around the world …

Formation Of Oil-Particle-Aggregates: Numerical Model Formulation And Calibration, Linlin Cui, Courtney K. Harris, Danielle R.N. Tarpley

VIMS Articles

When oil spills occur in turbid waters, the oil droplets and mineral grains can combine to form oil-particle aggregates (OPAs). The formation of OPAs impacts the vertical transport of both the oil and the mineral grains; especially increasing deposition of oil to the seabed. Though the coastal oceans can be very turbid, to date, few numerical ocean models have accounted for aggregation processes that form OPAs. However, interactions between oil and mineral aggregates may be represented using techniques developed to account for sediment aggregation. As part of Consortium for Simulation of Oil Microbial Interactions in the Ocean (CSOMIO), we modified …

Areas Suitable For Living Shorelines: Ranked For Co-Benefits Provided, Pamela Mason, Tamia Rudnicky, Jessica Hendricks, Marcia Berman

Data

The Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM) at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) has been developing tools to guide local governments in shoreline management. Using a number of criteria, the Shoreline Management Model (SMM) determines appropriate shoreline best management practices. This layer contains only those areas determined to be suitable for non-structural plant marsh or plant marsh with sill recommendations. These areas are prioritized using a scoring method that considers nutrient removal potential, benefits provided to coastal buildings, the potential for the project to provide habitat continuity and enhancement, and the potential the project to add resilience for …

Road Accessibility From County Seat Under Flooding: Hampton, Newport News, James City, Poquoson, Williamsburg, York, Accomack, Northampton, Alexandria, Fairfax, Gloucester, Mathews, Middlesex, Molly Mitchell, Jessica Hendricks, Daniel Schatt, Marcia Berman

Data

The impacts of recurrent flooding on roadways present challenging social and economic considerations for all coastal jurisdictions. Maintenance, public and private accessibility, evacuation routes, and emergency services are just a few of the common themes local governments are beginning to address for low-lying roadways currently known to flood. The project implements a protocol developed by CCRM to analyze the level at which road flooding may impact communities and their ability to reach key locations at periodic intervals; through the year 2100 in coastal Virginia. Using a network analysis, road accessibility is evaluated at different levels of flooding (at 0.1 meter …

Physical Vulnerability Index, Karinna Nunez, Molly Mitchell, Alexander Renaud

Data

The Center for Coastal Resources Management at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has developed a Physical Vulnerability Index (PVI) for the Chesapeake Bay region. PVI provides a broad perspective on the vulnerability of the Tidewater region, creating a composite measure of general flood impact rather than the threat of any one particular storm track. While there have been a number of efforts to categorize physical risk, the analysis behind this physical vulnerability index allows for application at a variety of scales, such as the county or US Census tract level. Calculating physical risk for geopolitically defined boundaries generates values …

Expanding The Use Of Natural And Nature-Based Infrastructure To Enhance Coastal Resiliency, Marcia Berman, Pamela Mason, Jessica Hendricks, Tamia Rudnicky

Reports

The vulnerability of coastal communities and the growing risks of coastal infrastructure continue largely due to past and ongoing patterns of development in high risk areas. This project is focused on increasing the use of natural and nature-based features (NNBFs) to increase resilience of coastal communities to flooding caused by extreme weather events.

Ecological Monitoring Program At Vims Esl : Annual Report 2020, Paige G. Ross, Richard A. Snyder

Reports

An Ecological Monitoring Program (EMP) has been established at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science Eastern Shore Laboratory (VIMS ESL) for the coastal environment near the Wachapreague lab. The goals of the initiative are to 1) provide status and trends information to scientists who study and regulators who manage Virginia’s marine resources, 2) provide a scientific context for short-term research and grant proposals 3) provide pedagogical enrichment to educators for their classes, and 4) build capacity in staff expertise and training of interns and students at VIMS ESL.

The program formalizes and standardizes data collection for a long-term status and …

Dredging Implementation Prioritization And Management For Middle Peninsula Shallow Draft Channels, Donna A. Milligan, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Christine A. Wilcox, Nicholas J. Dinapoli

Reports

To develop a regional dredging program for the localities of the Middle Peninsula, a database of 120 creeks and rivers was created of its waterbodies from Tappahannock to West Point. Generally, these waterbodies can be categorized into three basic types of shallow draft channels: federally-defined, non-federal with ATONs (aids to Navigation) and non-federal without ATONs. For the Middle Peninsula there are 13 federal channels, 12 non-federal channels in creeks with ATONs, and 94 in creeks without defined channels or ATONs.

Physical parameter data was collected or created for each of these creeks. This data included creek mouth morphology, amount of …

Vims Ferry Pier Ambient Water Monitoring Data, Salinity And Temperature, Daily Summary 1947-2003, Gary F. Anderson

Data

Bulk water parameters of Temperature and Salinity were measured at the VIMS Ferry Pier from 1947 to 2003. Initial methods were undocumented but likely automated with an instrument and chart recorder since the data consists of a daily high and low measurement from which a mean value was derived.

Beginning in 1971 an automated instrument recorded continuously from which 2-hour measurements were made and daily minimum and maxima were derived. Beginning in 1986 an Inter-Ocean CTD instrument placed at mid-depth was interfaced to a digital data logger (Campbell Scientific CRJ) that recorded data every six minutes, resulting in 240 measurements …

Impact Assessment And Management Challenges Of Key Rural Human Health Infrastructure Under Sea Level Rise, Molly Mitchell, Robert Isdell, Julie Herman, Christine Tombleson

VIMS Articles

Accelerating sea level rise in Virginia, United States, will significantly increase the flooding threat to low-lying roads, residences, and critical infrastructure as well as raise the water table, allowing saltwater intrusion into well water and threatening the function of septic fields. Although most of the adaptation work in Virginia has focused on urban economic centers, the majority of the coastline is rural and faces different threats and opportunities to address them compared to urban areas due to their reduced economic assets and their reliance on private infrastructure. In this case study, we assess the potential for geospatially quantifying impact to …

Water Quality In Accomack County Freshwater Streams 2020, Richard A. Snyder, Paige G. Ross

Reports

Expansion of poultry house operations and use of litter as a soil amendment in Accomack County Virginia has raised concerns for water quality impacts on both seaside and bayside of the Eastern Shore of Virginia (ESVA). This ongoing investigation is examining freshwater stream water quality in Accomack Virginia to identify water quality impairments from poultry operation storm water runoff. Previous sampling data from 2019 has been integrated into this report. Sampling in 2020 followed an extended drought period (base flow) and two inch rainfall events (storm flow) in streams at road crossings in Accomack County Bayside and Seaside drainages. Dissolved …

Surface Water Nitrogen Attenuation From The Accomack County, Va Southern Landfill Groundwater Discharge - Final Report, Richard A. Snyder, Paige G. Ross

Reports

Previous sampling of the stream crossing Bobtown Road (Rt 178) near the intersection of Hollies Church Road (Rt. 620), had indicated high levels of nitrogen in the stream flow (Snyder and Ross, 2019a). The proximity of the retired Accomack County Landfill upstream of the site triggered a higher resolution sampling of the stream in an attempt to isolate a source of the nitrogen loading (Snyder and Ross, 2019b). Accomack County has requested repeated sampling of this stream segment to monitor nutrient attenuation trends from the site, and stations were established for that purpose. This Final Report provides a summary of …

The Status Of Virginia’S Public Oyster Resource 2020, Melissa Southworth, Roger L. Mann

Reports

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) monitors recruitment of the Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin, 1791), annually from late spring through early fall, by deploying spatfall[1] (settlement and recruitment of larval oysters to the post metamorphic form termed spat) collectors (shellstrings) at various sites in three Virginia western Chesapeake Bay tributaries. The survey provides an estimate of a particular area’s potential for receiving a "strike" or settlement (set) of oysters on the bottom and helps describe the timing of recruitment events in a given year. Information obtained from this monitoring effort provides an overview of long-term recruitment …

Monitoring The Abundance Of American Shad And River Herring In Virginia’S Rivers 2020 Annual Report, Eric J. Hilton, Patrick E. Mcgrath, Brian Watkins, Ashleigh Magee

Reports

This report describes the results of the twenty-third year of a continuing study to estimate the relative abundance and assess the status of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) stocks in Virginia by monitoring the spawning runs in the James, York and Rappahannock rivers in spring 2020, evaluating hatchery programs, and contributing to coast-wide assessments (ASMFC 2007, ASMFC 2020).

We also report on two fisheryindependent monitoring programs using anchor gillnets in the Rappahannock River (year 3) and the Chickahominy River (year 6; a major tributary of the James River), to determine relative abundance and stock structure for the adult spawning run of …

Gis Data: Anne Arundel County, Maryland - Shoreline Inventory Data 2020, Karinna Nunez, Marcia Berman, Sharon Killeen, Jessica Hendricks, Tamia Rudnicky, Catherine Riscassi

Data

The shoreline inventory files have been generated to support the application of the Maryland Shoreline Stabilization Model (SSM), developed by the Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM), Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), to enhance and streamline regulatory decision making in Maryland. This shoreline inventory includes the features needed as inputs to run the SSM.

The data developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three-tiered shoreline assessment approach. This assessment characterizes conditions by using observations made remotely at the desktop using high resolution imagery. The three-tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shorezone into three regions:

1) the immediate …

Vims Hydrofile: Ambient Water Monitoring And Meteorological Data For Chesapeake Bay And Near Coastal Shelf Waters, 1942-1982, Gary F. Anderson

Data

Historical ambient water quality and meteorologic conditions from cruises conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Chesapeake Bay and nearshore coastal shelf waters over a 40-year period through 1982.

Bulk water parameters were routinely measured during cruises conducted in Chesapeake Bay and nearshore coastal waters conducted by VIMS over four decades. Data were punched on 80-character cards known as ‘Form 1’ format by the VIMS central Computer Center. These were later converted to digital files. For this publication the Form 1 files were unpacked into yearly flat files containing two record types:

Station records - Contain surface observations …

Coastal Virginia Social Vulnerability Index At The Block Group Level, Sarah Stafford, Schyler Vander Schaaf

Data

Following other social vulnerability indexes, including the SoVI® developed by the Hazards & Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina, this vulnerability index is based on a principal component analysis (PCA). PCA is a statistical technique that takes as its input a matrix of interrelated socioeconomic variables – in this case those considered to measure various dimensions of social vulnerability – and creates a new set of orthogonal principal components that extract the important variation the underlying input data while reducing the noise and redundancy in the data. After conducting the PCA, the researcher combines the newly created …