Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Regulatory Fidelity To Guidance In Virginia’S Tidal Wetlands Program, Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

The Commonwealth of Virginia manages its tidal wetlands resources through implementation of the Tidal Wetlands Act (Va. Code §28.2-1300 et seq.). This Act establishes a state-local regulatory program providing the option for local governments located in the coastal zone to voluntarily assume the primary responsibility for local implementation, through a citizen wetlands board, with oversight by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC). The Tidal Wetlands Act charges local wetlands boards with balancing the preservation and use of tidal wetlands in order to protect the ecosystem services they provide. In addition, Virginia has an established state policy of no-net loss of …

Shoreline Evolution: City Of Virginia Beach, Virginia, Chesapeake Bay, Lynnhaven River, Broad Bay, And Atlantic Ocean Shorelines, Donna A. Milligan, Christine Wilcox, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Mary C. Cox

Reports

The City of Virginia Beach is situated along both the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay (Figure 1). Through time, the City’s shoreline has evolved, and determining the rates and patterns of shore change provides the basis to know how a particular coast has changed through time and how it might proceed in the future.Along Chesapeake Bay’s estuarine shores, winds, waves, tides and currents shape and modify coastlines by eroding, transporting and depositing sediments.
The purpose of this report is to document how the shore zone of the City of Virginia Beach has evolved since 1937. Aerial imagery was taken for …

Influence Of Natural And Novel Organic Carbon Sources On Denitrification In Forest, Degraded Urban, And Restored Streams, Ta Newcomer, Ss Kaushal, Pm Mayer, Ar Shields, Elizabeth A. Canuel, Et Al

VIMS Articles

Organic carbon is important in regulating ecosystem function, and its source and abundance may be altered by urbanization. We investigated shifts in organic carbon quantity and quality associated with urbanization and ecosystem restoration, and its potential effects on denitrification at the riparian-stream interface. Field measurements of streamwater chemistry, organic carbon characterization, and laboratory-based denitrification experiments were completed at two forested, two restored, and two unrestored urban streams at the Baltimore Long-Term Ecological Research site, Maryland, USA. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrate loads increased with runoff according to a power-law function that varied across sites. Stable isotopes and molar C:N …

Shoreline Evolution Update: 1937/38-2009 End Point Rate Calculations Counties Of Accomack, Gloucester, And York Cities Of Newport News, Norfolk, And Poquoson, Donna A. Milligan, Christine Wilcox, Mary C. Cox, C. Scott Hardaway Jr.

Reports

Through time, Chesapeake Bay’s shoreline has evolved, and determining the rates and patterns of shore change provides the basis to know how a particular coast has changed through time and how it might proceed in the future. Along Chesapeake Bay’s estuarine shores, winds, waves, tides and currents shape and modify coastlines by eroding, transporting and depositing sediments.

The purpose of this report is to document how the shore zone of six Virginia localities, Accomack, Gloucester, York, Newport News, Norfolk, and Poquoson, have evolved since 1937/38 (Figure 1). Aerial imagery was taken for most of the Bay region beginning then and …

Virginia Wetlands Report Vol. 27, No. 2, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science, Center For Coastal Resources Management

Virginia Wetlands Reports

Tidal Marsh Inventories

Recurrent Flooding Study, Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

Rivers & Coast is a periodic publication of the Center for Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The goal of Rivers & Coast is to keep readers well informed of current scientific understanding behind key environmental issues related to watershed rivers and coastal ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay.

City Of Virginia Beach, Virginia Shoreline Inventory Report Methods And Guidelines, Marcia Berman, Harry Berquist, Sharon Killeen, Carl Hershner, Karinna Nunez, Karen Reay, Tamia Rudnicky, Daniel E. Schatt

Reports

The data inventory developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three tiered shoreline assessment approach. In most cases this assessment characterizes conditions that can be observed from a small boat navigating along the shoreline. The three tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shorezone into three regions:

1 ) the immediate riparian zone, evaluated for land use; 2 ) the bank, evaluated for height, stability, cover and natural protection; and 3 ) the shoreline, describing the presence of shoreline structures for shore protection and recreational purposes. A combination of handheld GPS units and GPS registered videography were used to …

Shoreline Evolution: Westmoreland County, Virginia Potomac River And Rappahannock River Shorelines, Donna A. Milligan, Christine Wilcox, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Mary C. Cox

Reports

Westmoreland County is situated along the Potomac River and Rappahannock River. Through time, the County’s shoreline has evolved, and determining the rates and patterns of shore change provides the basis to know how a particular coast has changed through time and how it might proceed in the future. Along Chesapeake Bay’s estuarine shores, winds, waves, tides and currents shape and modify coastlines by eroding, transporting and depositing sediments. The purpose of this report is to document how the shore zone of Westmoreland County has evolved since 1937. Aerial imagery was taken for most of the Bay region beginning that year …

Evaluating Recruitment Of American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, In The Potomac River (Spring 2012), Troy D. Tuckey, Mary C. Fabrizio

Reports

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) adopted the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the American eel in November 1999. The FMP focuses on increasing coastal states’ efforts to collect American eel data through both fishery-dependent and fishery-independent studies. Consequently, member jurisdictions agreed to implement an annual survey for young-of-year (YOY) American eels. The survey is intended to “…characterize trends in annual recruitment of the YOY eels over time [to produce a] qualitative appraisal of the annual recruitment of American eel to the U.S. Atlantic Coast” (ASMFC 2000). The development of these surveys began in 2000 with full implementation …

Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Situation And Outlook Report : Results Of The 2011 Virginia Shellfish Aquaculture Crop Reporting Survey, Thomas J. Murray, Karen Hudson

Reports

The shellfish aquaculture industry in Virginia continues to grow, adding significant value to the state’s seafood marketplace. Today, watermen continue to harvest both hard clams and oysters from the state’s public resources, albeit at diminished rates. At the same time, Virginia’s watermen-farmers are providing growing quantities of additional quality shellfish to consumers. In recent years, folliowing the lead of the hard clam industry, a significant transition to intensive aquaculture of native oysters is underway. The once-extensive oyster planting utilizing wild seed has contracted primarily as a result of endemic oyster diseases and increasing wildlife predation of seed oysters. In its …

Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program Annual Report 2011, Susanna Musick, Lewis Gillingham

Reports

Through 2011, the Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program has maintained a 17-year database of records for tagged and recaptured fish. The program is a co-operative project of the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament (under the Virginia Marine Resources Commission-VMRC) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) of the College of William and Mary (under the VIMS Marine Advisory Program).

Monitoring Relative Abundance Of American Shad In Virginia Rivers 2011 Annual Report, Eric J. Hilton, Rob Latour, Brian Watkins, Ashleigh Magee

Reports

Concern about the decline in landings of American shad (Alosa sapidissima) along the Atlantic coast prompted the development of an interstate fisheries management plan (FMP) under the auspices of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Management Program (ASMFC 1999). Legislation enables imposition of federal sanctions on fishing in those states that fail to comply with the FMP. To be in compliance, coastal states are required to implement and maintain fishery-dependent and fishery-independent monitoring programs as specified by the FMP. For Virginia, these requirements include spawning stock assessments, the collection of biological data on the spawning run (e.g., age-structure, sex ratio, and …

Living Shorelines Policy: The Integration Of Shoreline Management And Planning, Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

Rivers & Coast is a periodic publication of the Center for Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The goal of Rivers & Coast is to keep readers well informed of current scientific understanding behind key environmental issues related to watershed rivers and coastal ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay.

Ecological And Erosion Protection Functions Of Chesapeake Bay Living Shorelines : Comprehensive Monitoring Of Ecological And Erosion Protection Functions Of Chesapeake Bay Living Shorelines (Cmls), Phase Ii, Donna Marie Bilkovic, Molly Mitchell

Reports

Armoring shorelines to prevent erosion, improve access, and accommodate individual landscaping interests can result in fragmentation or loss of habitats, reduction in capacity to moderate pollutant loads delivered to coastal waters, reduction in nekton and macrobenthic integrity (Bilkovic et al. 2005, King et al. 2005, Seitz et al. 2006, Bilkovic et al. 2006, Bilkovic & Roggero 2008), increases in invasive species, such as Phragmites australis (Chambers et al. 1999, King et al. 2007), and disturbance of sediment budgets sustaining adjacent properties. As an alternative to traditional armoring of shorelines, shoreline protection techniques incorporating natural elements from the system are increasingly …

Catlett Islands: Shoreline Change And Habitat Assessment Report, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Donna A. Milligan, Christine A. Wilcox, Mary C. Cox

Reports

The Catlett Islands are located approximately 35.2 kilometers (21.9 miles) from the mouth of the York River in Gloucester County, Virginia (Figure 1) and represent mesohaline conditions (8-18 parts per thousand (ppt)). The Islands lie within the lower estuarine reaches of the York River and are offshore of Timberneck Farm between Timberneck and Cedarbush Creeks on the north shore of the York River. They are separated from the Farm by tidal wetlands and creeks. The islands consist of parallel ridges of forested wetlands surrounded by extensive saltmarshes. The purpose of this project is to assess shoreline rates of change, estimate …

Collaborative Research: The Role Of Wind In Estuarine Dynamics, Upper Chesapeake Bay, Vims Instruments Deployed In Collaboration With Umces And Whoi; March-May, 2012 Deployment., Grace M. Cartwright, Kelsey A. Fall, Carl T. Friedrichs, William C. Boicourt, Malcolm E. Scully

Data

While the project is a collaborative effort involving several researchers from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Data archive here is primarily from VIMS owned instrumentation deployed as part of the project. A series of instruments were deployed in three transects in Upper Chesapeake Bay, South of the Choptank River from March to May 2012. This Dataset was collected with autonomously deployed Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP), Acoustic Doppler Velicometers (ADV), and Conductivity and Temperature Sensors (CT).

Virginia Wetlands Report Vol. 27, No. 1, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science, Center For Coastal Resources Management

Virginia Wetlands Reports

Sea Level Rise - State of the Science

Shoreline Evolution: Lancaster County, Virginia Rappahannock River And Chesapeake Bay Shorelines 2012, Donna A. Milligan, Christine A. Wilcox, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Mary C. Cox

Reports

ancaster County is situated along the Rappahannock River and Chesapeake Bay (Figure 1). The County has 330 miles of tidal shoreline (Lancaster, 2007). Through time, the County’s shoreline has evolved, and determining the rates and patterns of shore change provides the basis to know how a particular coast has changed through time and how it might proceed in the future. Along Chesapeake Bay’s estuarine shores, winds, waves, tides and currents shape and modify coastlines by eroding, transporting and depositing sediments. The purpose of this report is to document how the shore zone of Lancaster County has evolved since 1937. Aerial …

Shoreline Evolution: Middlesex County, Virginia Rappahannock River And Piankatank River Shorelines, Donna A. Milligan, Christine Wilcox, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Mary C. Cox

Reports

Middlesex County is situated along the Rappahannock and Piankatank Rivers (Figure 1). Through time, the County’s shoreline has evolved, and determining the rates and patterns of shore change provides the basis to know how a particular coast has changed through time and how it might proceed in the future. Along Chesapeake Bay’s estuarine shores, winds, waves, tides and currents shape and modify coastlines by eroding, transporting and depositing sediments. The purpose of this report is to document how the shore zone of Middlesex County has evolved since 1937. Aerial imagery was taken for most of the Bay region beginning that …

Estimating Relative Abundance Of Young-Of-Year American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, In The Virginia Tributaries Of Chesapeake Bay (Spring 2011), Troy D. Tuckey, Mary C. Fabrizio

Reports

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) adopted the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for the American eel in November 1999. The FMP focuses on increasing coastal states’ efforts to collect American eel data through both fishery-dependent and fishery-independent studies. Consequently, member jurisdictions agreed to implement an annual survey for young-of-year (YOY) American eels. The survey is intended to “…characterize trends in annual recruitment of the YOY eels over time [to produce a] qualitative appraisal of the annual recruitment of American eel to the U.S. Atlantic Coast” (ASMFC 2000). The development of these surveys began in 2000 with full implementation …

Spring-Neap Variation In Fecal Pellet Properties Within Surficial Sediment Of The York River Stuary, Virginia, E. A. Wei, L. M. Kraatz, Carl T. Friedrichs

Presentations

Fecal pellet abundance was measured within the upper seabed of the York River Estuary as part of a larger study investigating relationships between fine sediment aggregates and bed erodibility. Sedimentalogical surveys were conducted twice a month during the spring and summer of 2011 to coincide with spring or neap tidal cycles. Particle size distributions were determined by sieving the sediment using three methods: 1) typical grain size analysis, 2) gentle agitation with seawater, 3) gentle agitation with deionized water. Each method used four sieves (150, 90, 63 and 45 microns) to constrain the size abundance of the particles. The study …

Shoreline Evolution: King George County, Virginia Potomac River And Rappahannock River Shorelines, Donna A. Milligan, Christine Wilcox, C. Scott Hardaway Jr., Mary C. Cox

Reports

King George County is situated along the Potomac and the Rappahannock Rivers (Figure 1). Through time, the County’s shoreline has evolved, and determining the rates and patterns of shore change provides the basis to know how a particular coast has changed through time and how it might proceed in the future. Along Chesapeake Bay’s estuarine shores, winds, waves, tides, and currents shape and modify coastlines by eroding, transporting and depositing sediments.

The purpose of this report is to document how the shore zone of King George County has evolved since 1937. Aerial imagery was taken for most of the Bay …

Intercomparison Of 3-D Models For Estuarine Hydrodynamics And Hypoxia Within The Us Ioos Super-Regional Coastal Modeling Testbed, Carl T. Friedrichs, A. J. Bever, M.A.M. Friedrichs, The Estuarine Hypoxia Team

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Striped Bass Stocks In Virginia, Monitoring And Tagging Studies, 2010-2014 : Progress Report, 1 September 2010 - 31 August 2011, Philip W. Sadler, Matthew W. Smith, John M. Hoenig, Robert E. Harris, Lydia M. Goins

Reports

This report presents the results of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) tagging and monitoring activities in Virginia during the period 1 September 2010 through 31 August 2011. It includes an assessment of the biological characteristics of striped bass taken from the 2011 spring spawning run, estimates of annual survival and fishing mortality based on annual spring tagging, and the results of the study that documents the prevalence of mycobacterial infections of striped bass in Chesapeake Bay. The information contained in this report is required by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and is used to implement a coordinated management plan for …

Algicidal Activity And Potential Antifouling Defenses In Macroalgae From The Western Antarctic Peninsula Including Probable Synergistic Effects Of Multiple Compounds, Hamel P. Sevak, Charles D. Amsler, James B. Mcclinotck, J. Alan Maschek, Margaret O. Amsler, Craig F. Aumack, Kevin Peters, Bill J. Baker

Richard Bland Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Movements, Growth, And Mortality Of Chesapeake Bay Summer Flounder Based On Multiple Tagging Technologies, Mark J. Henderson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The research projects presented in this dissertation used multiple tagging technologies to examine the movements, growth, and mortality rates of summer flounder tagged and released in Chesapeake Bay. In the first two chapters, I used acoustic, archival, and conventional tags to examine the behavior of summer flounder on different spatial scales. Investigating the movement behavior of individuals on different scales is an important step towards understanding how large-scale distributions of a population are established. Based on the observed behaviors of summer flounder, I hypothesize that the movements of these fish are primarily related to foraging behavior while they are resident …

A Community-Based Participatory Assessment Of Fish Consumption And Dietary Mercury Exposure Along The Lower James River, Virginia Usa, Erica Lynnette Holloman

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods to conduct environmental exposure assessments provides valuable insight about disparities in fish consumption and contaminant exposure. Ninety-five community-specific fish consumption surveys were administered to low-income African American women (ages 16--49) residing in the Southeast community of Newport News, Virginia, USA, in 2008. The mean fish consumption rate for the women surveyed was 147.8 g/day (95% CI: 117.6-185.8), a rate substantially higher than the mean fish consumption rate reported for U.S. women (1.8 g/day 95% CI: 1.51-2.04). Through collaborative partnerships established between current researchers and The Moton Community House (a local community center), …

Simulation Of Coastal Inundation Instigated By Storm Surge And River Discharge In The Chesapeake Bay Using Sub-Grid Modeling Coupled With Lidar Data, J. D. Loftis, H. V. Wang

Presentations

Sub-grid modeling is a novel method by which water level elevations on the sub-grid level can be obtained through the combination of water levels and velocities efficiently calculated at the coarse computational grid, the discretized bathymetric depths, and local friction parameters without resorting to solve the full set of equations. Sub-grid technology essentially allows velocity to be determined rationally and efficiently at the sub-grid level. This salient feature enables coastal flooding to be addressed in a single cross-scale model from the ocean to the upstream river channel without overly refining the grid resolution. To this end, high-resolution DEMs will be …

Unprecedented Restoration Of A Native Oyster Metapopulation, David M. Schulte

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

A Case Study In The Effectiveness Of Marine Protected Areas (Mpas): The Islands Of Bonaire And Curacao, Dutch Caribbean, Noelle J. Relles

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The islands of Bonaire and Curacao, Dutch Caribbean, were both mapped along their leeward coasts for dominant coral community and other benthic cover in the early 1980s. This mapping effort offers a unique baseline for comparing changes in the benthic community of the two islands since that time, particularly given the marked differences between the two islands. Bonaire is well-protected and completely surrounded by a marine protected area (MPA), which includes two no-diving marine reserves; additionally, Bonaire's population is only around 15,000. In contrast, the island of Curacao is home to 140,000 inhabitants and marine protection is limited, with a …