Habitat Development Field Investigations, Windmill Point Marsh Development Site, James River, Virginia. Appendix D. Environmental Impacts of Marsh Development with Dredged Material. Botany, Soils, Aquatic Biology, and Wildlife
Habitat Development Field Investigations, Windmill Point Marsh Development Site, James River, Virginia. Appendix D. Environmental Impacts of Marsh Development with Dredged Material. Botany, Soils, Aquatic Biology, and Wildlife

Author: VIRGINIA INST OF MARINE SCIENCE GLOUCESTER POINT.

Publisher:

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 517

ISBN-13:

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A marsh island habitat was constructed in the James River between November 1974 and February 1975 from fine-grained dredged material partially contained by a sand dike. The marsh-island contained 4.9 ha of intertidal and low-lying upland substrate within the dike and an intertidal mudflat outside the dike. Benthic invertebrates, fish, wildlife (particularly birds), plants and soil characteristics of the habitat development site were studied from summer 1976 to fall 1977. Between the completion of site construction and the beginning of ecological studies, the island was sprigged and seeded with wetland and upland vegetation. The majority of the planted wetland species were grazed and destroyed by wildlife (particularly Canada geese); most of the upland seeded species were displaced by native plant invasion. The marsh island habitat development was beneficial to the region with respect to biological resources by providing an increase in both food and cover for fish and wildlife relative to the original shallow river bottom. The developed habitat compared favorably with natural reference areas in terms of fish and wildlife resources and productivity. The major threat to the island is severe erosion of its upstream end. Continuous erosion would expose the fine-grained interior of the marsh island to the energies of the mainstream James River.

Habitat Development Field Investigations Windmill Point Marsh Development Site James River, Virginia. Appendix E. Environmental Impacts of Marsh Development with Dredged Material: Metals and Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Compounds in Marsh Soils and Vascular Plant Tissues
Habitat Development Field Investigations Windmill Point Marsh Development Site James River, Virginia. Appendix E. Environmental Impacts of Marsh Development with Dredged Material: Metals and Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Compounds in Marsh Soils and Vascular Plant Tissues

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 55

ISBN-13:

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Soil and vascular plant tissue samples were collected in October 1976 from three freshwater marshes located on the James River in Virginia. One marsh known as the Windmill Point marsh development site had been constructed using dredged material during the 1974-75 maintenance dredging of the James River navigation channel. The two other marshes were natural marshes. The marshes studied were similar in their substrate characteristics. All were fine-textured silt and clay with volatile solids values between 10 and 20 percent, and contained about 50 percent water. Elevation and plant community characteristics were similar. Soil samples were collected from the same three elevation zones in each marsh. Arrow arum (Peltandra virginica) seeds, barnyard grass(Echinochloa sp.) seeds, stems and leaves, and roots, and cattail(Typha sp.) stems and leaves and tubers were also collected from each marsh. Soil and tubers were also collected from each marsh. Soil and plant tissue samples were analyzed for the metals nickel, zinc, chromium, lead, and cadmium and the chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds DDT, DDD, DDE, lindane, heptachlor, heptachlor epoxide, chlordane, endrine, dieldrin, Kelthane, Kepone, PCBs, and toxaphene. Plant stem and leaf tissue samples were treated before analysis to remove sorbed metal and chlorinated hydrocarbon materials. Marsh soil concentrations of chromium, cadmium, and lead were higher in the dredged material marsh; nickel and zinc concentrations were higher in the natural marsh. Low detectable levels of DDD, chlordane isomers, and Arochlor 1260 (PCB) occurred most frequently in dredged material marsh soils.