Oyster Pond Ecology Meeting 2002

Boston University Marine Program and Oyster Pond Environmental Trust hold the 2002 Oyster Pond Ecology Meeting.

On September 3, 2002 at The Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA there was an Oyster Pond Ecology Meeting. Professor Ivan Valiela was on hand to discuss The BU Marine Program Marine Ecology course's 2002 ecological study of Oyster Pond. Twenty stakeholders came to the meeting to voice their concerns about recent changes in pond water quality and to raise questions on the ecology of the pond and its watershed. These questions would steer the students to design and implement scientific studies on the pond to better understand Oyster Pond and it's current ecological health.

Some of the issues raised at the meeting were:

• Study the impact of salt water coming into the pond from the weir. Find out how fast the pond system reacts to influx of salt water from the ocean.
• Study the impact of the Summer 2002 drought on the pond's fresh water/salt water concentration.
• Investigate the biology of the pond.
• Create detailed inputs of fresh water into pond.
• Study suitable habitat for alewife spawning in the pond.
• Map the salt water tolerance and growth limiting factors of plants in the pond.
• Validate a model of circulation of salinity in the pond for long-term pond management.
• Study the current phosphate concentration in the pond to prevent a future bluegreen bacteria bloom.
• Study the invasive plant species in and around the pond.

The Marine Ecology Undergraduate and graduate students designed research projects based on the discussions at this meeting. They conducted projects during the month of September 2002 you may view their results in pdf format here: BUMP 2002 Oyster Pond Experiments and Results

A summary of the 2001 Oyster Pond study, Watershed Influences on Oyster Pond, is available on this website in pdf format at http://www.opet.org/html/bump01.html. This study concerned land derived Nitrogen to Oyster Pond; distribution of salinity, nutrients, chlorophyll; nutrient limitation experiments; response of plants and seaweeds to nitrogen load; and distribution and growth of fish.