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Improvement of the sediment ecosystem following diversion of an intertidal sewage outfall at the Fraser river estuary, Canada, with emphasis on Corophium salmonis (amphipoda)

Primary treated sewage effluent from the city of Vancouver, Canada was deposited directly onto the intertidal ecosystem of Sturgeon bank, Fraser river estuary between 1962 and 1988. In response to the degraded sediment conditions an azoic zone developed near the discharge outfall. Effluent discharges into the intertidal zone were almost completely stopped in 1988 with the construction of a submerged outfall. Our studies, conducted between 1994 and 1996, showed considerable improvement in the environment of the mudflat ecosystem, including increased dissolved oxygen, decreased sediment chlorophyll, decreased organic material in the sediment, reduced heavy metals in surficial sediment and increased grain size. Our data strongly suggest that improvement of sediment conditions near the former sewage outfall was a major factor enabling colonization by C. salmonis.

Simple

Date (Publication)
2001-09
Cited responsible party
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

DFO

Colin Levings

Principal investigator

School of Natural Resources, The Ohio State University

J.L. Arvai

Principal investigator

Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences

P.J. Harrison

Principal investigator

Department of Zoology, The University of British Columbia

W.E. Neill

Principal investigator
Presentation form
Digital document
Other citation details

Marine Pollution Bulletin 44 (2002) 511–519

PII: S00 2 5-3 2 6X(0 1 )0 02 6 4- 8

0025-326X/02/$ - see front matter

Purpose

In this paper we consider the improvement of the ecosystem of Sturgeon bank following the cessation of this stress, focusing on variables such as dissolved oxygen and sediment quality which had been measured in a number of earlier studies during the time when primary treated sewage contaminated the surrounding mudflats.

Status
Completed
Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned

Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords v15.9

  • Earth Science > Oceans

  • Earth Science > Oceans > Water Quality > Ocean Contaminants

DFO Areas

  • North Pacific Ocean > Fraser River and BC Interior

  • North Pacific Ocean > South Inner Coast(Johnstone Strait, Strait of Georgia, Juan de Fuca, inlets and passages)

Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords v15.9

  • Earth Science > Biosphere > Aquatic Ecosystems > Estuarine Habitat

  • Earth Science > Oceans > Marine Sediments > Sedimentation

DFO Areas

  • North Pacific Ocean > Fraser River and BC Interior

  • North Pacific Ocean > South Inner Coast(Johnstone Strait, Strait of Georgia, Juan de Fuca, inlets and passages)

DFO Areas

  • North Pacific Ocean > South Inner Coast(Johnstone Strait, Strait of Georgia, Juan de Fuca, inlets and passages)

Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords v15.9

  • Earth Science > Biological Classification > Animals/Invertebrates > Arthropods > Crustaceans > Amphipods

  • Earth Science > Biosphere > Aquatic Ecosystems > Estuarine Habitat

  • Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecological Dynamics > Community Dynamics > Indicator Species

  • Earth Science > Human Dimensions > Environmental Impacts > Sewage

DFO Areas

  • North Pacific Ocean > Fraser River and BC Interior

Use limitation

Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language

English

Character set
UTF8
Topic category
  • Oceans
  • Environment
Environment description

14 KB

Description

Four sampling sites within the Fraser river estuary, BC, Canada.

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Begin
1994-05-10
End
1996-11
Supplemental Information

Primary treated sewage effluent from the city of Vancouver, Canada was deposited directly onto the intertidal ecosystem of Sturgeon bank, Fraser river estuary between 1962 and 1988. In response to the degraded sediment conditions an azoic zone developed near the discharge outfall. Effluent discharges into the intertidal zone were almost completely stopped in 1988 with the construction of a submerged outfall. Our studies, conducted between 1994 and 1996, showed considerable improvement in the environment of the mudflat ecosystem, including increased dissolved oxygen, decreased sediment chlorophyll, decreased organic material in the sediment, reduced heavy metals in surficial sediment and increased grain size. The amphipod Corophium salmonis, important in the food web for juvenile salmon and other fish species, recolonized the previously azoic location. At reference stations, C. salmonis density was similar to that observed in previous surveys two decades earlier. Our data strongly suggest that improvement of sediment conditions near the former sewage outfall was a major factor enabling colonization by C. salmonis.

Distribution format
Name Version

electronic

none

Distributor contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Pacific Salmon Foundation

Isobel Pearsall

pearsalli@shaw.ca

Distributor
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/data-donnees/index-eng.html

DFO Science website

WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download

https://soggy2.zoology.ubc.ca/geonetwork/srv/api/records/09155311-8f2f-4d7c-95a0-6f5f235f0e31/attachments/09155311-8f2f-4d7c-95a0-6f5f235f0e31.pdf 09155311-8f2f-4d7c-95a0-6f5f235f0e31.pdf

WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download

https://soggy2.zoology.ubc.ca/geonetwork/srv/api/records/09155311-8f2f-4d7c-95a0-6f5f235f0e31/attachments/09155311-8f2f-4d7c-95a0-6f5f235f0e31.xlsx 09155311-8f2f-4d7c-95a0-6f5f235f0e31.xlsx
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Statement

Levings produced paper copy. Fraser scanned with Fujitsu Scansnap s1500 (ABBY Finereader OCR software). Data was extracted through Adobe Reader conversion and manual entry into MS Excel.

Metadata

File identifier
09155311-8f2f-4d7c-95a0-6f5f235f0e31 XML
Metadata language

eng

Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Date stamp
2023-12-19T00:17:59.346Z
Metadata standard name

North American Profile of ISO19115:2003 - Geographic information - Metadata

Metadata standard version

NAP - CAN/CGSB-171.100-2009

Metadata author
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Pacific Salmon Foundation

Sarah Fraser

fraser.sarahk@gmail.com

Author
Other language
Language Character encoding
French UTF8
English UTF8
 
 

Overviews

overview
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Spatial extent

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Keywords

Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords v15.9
Earth Science > Biological Classification > Animals/Invertebrates > Arthropods > Crustaceans > Amphipods Earth Science > Biosphere > Aquatic Ecosystems > Estuarine Habitat Earth Science > Biosphere > Aquatic Ecosystems > Estuarine Habitat Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecological Dynamics > Community Dynamics > Indicator Species Earth Science > Human Dimensions > Environmental Impacts > Sewage Earth Science > Oceans Earth Science > Oceans > Marine Sediments > Sedimentation Earth Science > Oceans > Water Quality > Ocean Contaminants

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