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A Community-Based Nutrient Water Quality Monitoring Project to Support
Habitat Protection in Nantucket Sound
Project summary: Funded by the National Marine Fisheries Service,
this project establishes a system-wide volunteer water sampling program to
provide baseline information about the water quality in Nantucket Sound in
order to examine the potential link between impaired waters discharging from
coastal embayments and the impact on the water and habitat quality of the
Sound. At present, it is clear that portions of all of the southern shore
embayments of Cape Cod are experiencing nutrient related water quality
declines primarily related to changes in watershed land-use associated with
increasing population within the coastal zone over the past half century.
The
primary nutrient causing the increasing impairment of the Commonwealth’s
coastal embayments is nitrogen and the primary sources of this nitrogen are
wastewater disposal, fertilizers, with indirect increases resulting from
alterations to freshwater hydrology associated with development. Within
Nantucket Sound, surface and bottom samples of dissolved oxygen, temperature,
and salinity/specific conductivity are being collected at 16 sites by teams
of volunteers that include commercial fishermen and fishing families. Marine
water samples are being analyzed for concentrations of nitrate, ammonium,
ortho-phosphate, particulate carbon, particulate nitrogen, dissolved organic
nitrogen, chlorophyll a & pheophytin a and specific conductance. Nitrogen
related water quality decline represents one of the most serious threats to
the ecological health of the near shore coastal waters that impacts both
benthic and pelagic habitats, and therefore the health of our local
fisheries.
Sampling Sites
Project partners:
Dr. Brian Howes, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, School for Marine
Science and Technology
Roland Samimy, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, School for Marine
Science and Technology
Olivia Free, Massachusetts Fishermen's Partnership
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