Historical environmental changes in two shallow, unstratified, estuaries in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts are compared, using three diatom paleo-production indicators: sedimentary biogenic silica (BSi), BSi flux and ratio of Centric to Penate diatoms. Both estuaries were exposed to pollution. New Bedford Harbor (NBH) has a history of intensive nutrient loading and industrial pollution, while the control site, Apponagansett Bay, has lower levels of nutrient loading. Consideration of local precipitation history and diatom parameters suggests that salinity-driven changes in diatom production are negligible. Over the past ∼350 yrs, BSi concentrations and fluxes are higher in NBH. Thus, overall diatom production is sensitive to nutrient enrichment and less responsive to industrial pollutants. The relationship between the C/P ratio and environmental conditions is not as clear, possibly due to its dependence on eelgrass abundance. The uniqueness of this study lies in its use of the parameters combined, as well as its geographic setting.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.29476 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Spasojević, Zorana |
| Contributors | Chmura, Gail (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Geography.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001956070, proquestno: MQ85826, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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