Fishery resource utilization of a restored estuarine borrow pit: A beneficial use of dredged material case study

Published source details Reine K., Clarke D., Ray G. & Dickerson C. (2013) Fishery resource utilization of a restored estuarine borrow pit: A beneficial use of dredged material case study. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 73, 115-128.
Share Tweet Email

Actions

This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Refill disused borrow pits Action Link

Refill disused borrow pits

A before-and-after, site comparison study in 2004–2007 of two soft seabed sites in Barnegat Bay estuary, New Jersey, USA (Reine et al. 2013) found that partially refilling a disused borrow pit led to increased invertebrate species richness, abundance and diversity after 2–3 years, but these remained lower than at a nearby natural site. Refilling the pit increased average species richness (before: 1–13; after: 14–24 taxa/sample), abundance (before: 0–144; after: 151–495 individuals/sample) and diversity (presented as diversity indices) but these remained lower than at the natural site (species: 40; abundance: 1,370). Abundance at the natural site had increased over the same time (before: 435; after: 1,370) and species richness remained stable (before: 40; after: 40). In 2004, a borrow pit was partially filled with dredged sand, reducing its depth from 11.5 m to 6 m and increasing relief complexity-. Once in 2006 and twice in 2007, eighteen sediment samples were collected at the restored pit and six at a nearby natural site using a grab (0.044 cm², 6 cm depth). Invertebrates (>0.5 mm) were identified and counted. Data post-restoration (2006 and 2007) were pooled. Data prior to restoration were obtained from Versar (1999).
_{Versar (1999). Biological sampling for dredged holes in Barnegat Bay, Ocean County, NJ. Data Report prepared for the US Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District, Philadelphia, PA.}

(Summarised by: Anaëlle Lemasson)