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Home > GCR > Vol. 26 > Iss. 1 (2015)

 

Alternate Title

Rangia cuneata clam decline in Lake Pontchartrain from 2001 to 2014 due to an El Niño Southern Oscillation shift coupled with a period of high hurricane intensity and frequency

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The clam, Rangia cuneata, occurs in low salinity zones of Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico estuaries. Prior to 2001, it was abundant in Lake Pontchartrain, a large and shallow oligohaline estuary, located north of New Orleans. However, abundance abruptly decreased by 96% after an extreme drought from an El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) shift (1998-2000). Stable higher salinities resulted in the establishment of higher salinity communities. The hooked mussel, Ischadium recurvum, increased abruptly and colonized live R. cuneata. Competition from I. recurvum and the R. cuneata decline occurred at the end of the drought, despite a decrease in salinity. After the drought, there was a period of high hurricane intensity and frequency which stifled clam recovery. Their densities remained relatively low due to declines from hurricane disturbances in 2005, 2008 and 2012. In 2014, after two years without severe hurricane effects, density and biomass recovered to baseline years (1954 and 1997). Barrier island erosion caused by Hurricane Georges in 1998 and adverse effects of the ENSO drought on wetlands may have set the stage for increased effects of subsequent hurricanes. High relative sea level rise, wetland loss and erosion of barrier islands, which occurred with each successive storm, potentially increased the size of surges. Surges resuspended sediments which buried clams and abruptly increased salinity and lowered dissolved oxygen. Salinity stratification persisted after storms and caused hypoxia in bottom waters. Storm surge interactions with discharges from the Bonnet Carré Spillway, a Mississippi River flood diversion structure, and the MRGO, a ship channel, also exacerbated hurricane effects.

First Page

9

Last Page

20

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