Nutrient Cycling in Piermont Marsh

We investigate the cycling of nutrients through a brackish tidal wetland about 40 km north of Manhattan in the Hudson River estuary. As part of a long-term ecological study of Piermont Marsh, a NOAA reference wetland managed by the NY State DEC, we are measuring dissolved inorganic nutrients on the Marsh surface and its drainage channels. The marsh occupies 400 acres along the southwest corner of Haverstraw Bay with approximately 2 km frontage to the estuary. It is supplied with nutrient-rich water and drained primarily along several tidal creeks and the hundreds of rivulets that feed them. During most tidal cycles the silty berm bounding the marsh is not topped. Human influence in the marsh's surrounding area has had profound effects, one of the most fundamental of which has been the shift from native grass species, predominantly Spartina alterniflora, to an invasive genotype of common reed, Phragmites australis. Along with this shift there have been changes in the root bed, the effective marsh interior and berm heights, the hydroperiod and, as a result, the ability of the marsh to be utilized by various types of Hudson estuary fish. The vegetative shift is believed to be anthropogenic, but the connection is not well understood, and it is not known what role biogeochemical perturbations are playing. We present two field seasons of nitrate, phosphate and silicate measurements from Sparkill Creek, a freshwater stream draining the surrounding highlands constitutes the northern boundary, two tidally driven creeks transect the Marsh from West to East: the Crumkill and an unnamed creek we have dubbed the "Tidal", Ludlow Ditch, a no-longer-maintained drainage channel grading gently from the northern part of the marsh to the South terminates in a wide tidal outlet that is its southern boundary. Net tidal cycle fluxes and fluxes resulting from runoff events are presented. Deviations from Redfield ratios and limiting nutrients are analyzed. Piermont Marsh data is compared to prior studies of the other three NOAA-managed reference marshes in the Hudson Valley. The data supplements carbon content data (presented in a companion poster) to estimate the carbon cycling and sequestration capacity of the Marsh sediments. Nutrient data is being collected as one component of a broad ecological and geochemical study of the Marsh and its adaptation to human influence (see companion posters on carbon cycling and habitat utilization in the Marsh). All data were collected and analyzed as part of Lamont-Doherty Secondary School Field Research Program, which engages NYC high school teachers and students in research in the Hudson/Raritan estuarine environment.