A Rehabilitated Estuarine Ecosystem A Rehabilitated Estuarine Ecosystem The environment and ecology of the Thames Estuary Edited by Martin J. Attrill Department of Biological Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK ... " SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Card Number: 98-70273 ISBN 978-1-4613-4671-5 ISBN 978-1-4419-8708-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-8708-2 AH Rights Reserved © 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1998 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1998 No part of material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. Contents Contributors Xl Acknowledgements xiv 1 Introduction 1 Jim Green 1.1 The Thamesestuary: a personalview 1 1.2 Cleaningup the Thamesand the role ofthis book 2 2 TheThames estuary: ahistoryof the impactof humans on the environmentand a descriptionof the currentapproach to environmentalmanagement 5 DerekTinsley 2.1 Introduction 5 2.2 Definitionofthestudyarea 6 2.3 Basicdescriptionofthe Thamesestuary 7 2.3.1 Widthand depth 7 2.3.2 Freshwaterinputs 8 2.3.3 Currentuse ofthe estuary 8 2.3.4 Estuaryhabitats 9 2.4 The Thamesestuarybefore1800 9 2.4.1 Methodology 9 2.4.2 The estuaryenvironmentbefore1800 10 2.4.3 The presenceand abundanceofestuarine organismsbefore1800 10 2.5 Ahistoryofthe impactofhumanson the environment (1800to the presentday) 11 2.5.1 Waterquality 11 2.5.2 The declinein waterqualityin the nineteenthcentury 11 2.5.3 Interceptorsewersfor Londonand chemical treatmentofthe sewage 12 2.5.4 The declinein waterqualityin the twentiethcentury 13 2.5.5 The PippardReportand the WaterPollution Research Laboratorystudy 14 vi Contents 2.5.6 TheRoyal Commissionon EnvironmentalPollution (Third Report) 15 2.6 Water quality managementduring the Thames Water Authorityera 16 2.6.1 Water qualityobjectives 16 2.6.2 Apollutionbudgetfor dissolved oxygen 18 2.6.3 Improved waterqualityresultingfrom bettersewagetreatment 19 2.6.4 The threatto waterqualityfrom storm discharges 19 2.6.5 Controloftoxic,non-biodegradable substances 20 2.7 Habitatloss as aresultofflood defencework and land-claim 20 2.8 The currentapproach to environmental management 21 2.8.1 Water qualitymanagement 21 2.8.2 Operatingagreementsbetweenthe EA, ThamesRegionand ThamesWater 25 2.8.3 The currentapproach to habitat management 25 3 Physicaland chemical characteristics 27 JaneKinniburgh 3.1 Introduction 27 3.2 Physicalcharacteristics 27 3.2.1 Topography 27 3.2.2 Water levels 28 3.2.3 Water movements 30 3.2.4 Freshwaterflow 30 3.2.5 Temperature 33 3.2.6 Suspended solids 35 3.3 Chemicalcharacteristics 37 3.3.1 Salinity 37 3.3.2 Dissolvedoxygen 40 3.3.3 Nutrients 45 3.3.4 Dangeroussubstances 46 3.4 Modelling47 3.5 Summary48 4 The algae of the Thames estuary: areappraisal 49 Ian TittleyandDavidJohn 4.1 Introduction 49 4.1.1 Backgound 49 4.1.2 Benthic algalhabitatsin the tidalestuary 50 Contents vii 4.2 The presentreappraisal 51 4.2.1 Method 51 4.3 The algalflora by habitat 53 4.3.1 Marineto brackish-waterreaches 53 4.3.2 Freshwatertidalreach 54 4.4 Seasonality 55 4.5 Changesin occurrenceand distribution 57 4.6 Distributionalong the estuary 58 4.7 Futurestudies 64 4.8 Conclusion 65 5 Thezooplankton communities of theThames estuary 67 Chris Gordon, AnthonyBarkandRoland Bailey 5.1 Introduction 67 5.2 The currentstudyon the zooplanktonofthe Thamesestuary 68 5.3 Compositionofthe zooplankton 70 5.3.1 Protozoa,Cnidaria,Ctenophoraand Rotifera 70 5.3.2 Cladocera 71 5.3.3 Copepoda 71 5.3.4 Mysidacea 71 5.3.5 Amphipoda 72 5.4 Spatialand temporaldistributionsofthe majorgroups 72 5.4.1 Eurytemoraaffinis 72 5.4.2 Gammaruszaddachi 73 5.4.3 Neomysisinteger 73 5.4.4 Cyclopoids 75 5.5 Changes in dominanceofmajorspecies 75 5.6 Verticaland lateraldistributions 79 5.7 Comparisonwith zooplankton communities in otherestuaries 81 5.8 Zooplanktonfunctioning 82 5.8.1 Zooplanktonfeeding 82 5.8.2 Zooplankton asfood organisms 83 5.8.3 Otherobservations 84 5.9 Conclusions 84 6 Thebenthic macroinvertebratecommunities ofthe Thamesestuary 85 MartinAttrill 6.1 Introduction 85 6.2 ThamesEstuary Benthic Programme 86 6.3 The Thamesdivided 86 Vlll Contents 6.4 Benthicmacroinvertebrates- zoneby zone 88 6.4.1 Zone1:Teddingtonto LondonBridge 88 6.4.2 Zone2:LondonBridgeto Crossness 94 6.4.3 Zone3:Crossnessto Gravesend 98 6.4.4 Zone4:OuterEstuaryI 101 6.4.5 Zone5:OuterEstuaryII 110 6.5 Conclusions 112 7 Temporal changes inthemovements and abundance of Thames estuaryfish populations 115 MylesThomas 7.1 Introduction 115 7.2 Samplingmethod 116 7.3 Speciesnumbers 119 7.4 Diversity 121 7.5 Speciesabundance 122 7.5.1 Flounder 122 7.5.2 Sole 124 7.5.3 Whiting 124 7.5.4 Bass 125 7.5.5 Sandgoby 126 7.5.6 Herring 126 7.5.7 Smelt 128 7.5.8 Salmon 128 7.6 Communitycomposition 129 7.6.1 Speciesdendrogram 132 7.7 Trawlingmethod 132 7.7.1 Method 134 7.7.2 Results 136 7.8 Summary138 8 Host-parasiteinteractions: case studies of parasitic infectionsin migratoryfish 141 Margaret Munro,Phillip WhitfieldandSteveLee 8.1 Introduction 141 8.2 The intestinalfish helminthPomphorhynchus laevis 143 8.2.1 Introduction 143 8.2.2 Infection patternsin the intermediatehost 145 8.2.3 The range ofdefinitive hostspecies 148 8.2.4 Infectionpatternsin flounder 150 8.2.5 Acomparisonofinfectionsin flounder andsmelt 152 8.2.6 Pathogenicityto estuarinefish 155 8.3 Virus-associated spawningpapillomatosisin smelt 157 Contents IX 8.3.1 Introduction 157 8.3.2 Morphologyand ultrastructure 158 8.3.3 Epidemiology 159 8.4 Otherparasitesofmigratoryfish 163 8.5 Summaryand conclusions 165 9 TheThames estuarysaltmarshplantandsea-grass communities 169 Stephen Waite 9.1 Introduction 169 9.2 Saltmarshdevelopment 170 9.3 Intertidalseagrasscommunities 172 9.4 Saltmarshvascularplantsand communities 175 9.5 The originand spread ofSpartina 177 9.6 Regionalsaltmarshcommunities 179 9.7 Saltmarshvegetationofthe greaterThames 186 10 Estuaries: towards the nextcentury 191 AlasdairMcIntyre 10.1 Introduction 191 10.2 Earlyworkon estuaries 193 10.3 Concernsfor thefuture 195 Appendices 199 A Summaryofdatafor selected sites alongthe Thamesestuary 199 B Thamesestuaryspecieslist 200 References 235 Index 245 Contributors DrMartinJ.Attrill DrDavidJohn DepartmentofBiological Sciences BotanyDepartment UniversityofPlymouth The NaturalHistory Museum DrakeCircus CromwellRoad PlymouthPL48AA LondonSW7SBD UK UK DrR.G. Bailey Jane Kinniburgh DivisionofLifeSciences EnvironmentAgency King's College Rivers House University ofLondon WatersideDrive CampdenHill Road Aztec West LondonW87AH Almondsbury UK Bristol BS124UD UK DrA.W. Bark Division ofLifeSciences DrSteve Lee King'sCollege Division ofLifeSciences University ofLondon King'sCollege Campden Hill Road University ofLondon LondonW87AH CampdenHill Road UK LondonW87AH UK DrChris Gordon VoltaBasinResearch Project ProfessorAlasdairMcIntyre University ofGhana 63HamiltonPlace Legan AberdeenAB1SSBW Ghana UK ProfessorJim Green DrMargaretMunro 17King EdwardsGrove Division ofLifeSciences Teddington,MiddlesexTW119LY King'sCollege UK UniversityofLondon CampdenHill Road LondonW87AH UK xii Contributors R.MylesThomas DrStephenWhite EnvironmentAgency Biology Section ApolloCourt UniversityofBrighton 2BishopsSquareBusinessPark CockcroftBuilding StAlbans Road West Moulsecoombe Hatfield, HertfordshireALIO9EX BrightonBN24GJ UK UK DrDerekTinsley ProfessorPhilWhitfield National Centre for Ecotoxicology Head: DivisionofLifeSciences and HazardousSubstances King'sCollege EnvironmentAgency UniversityofLondon EvenlodeHouse CampdenHill Road HowberyPark London W87AH Wallingford UK Oxfordshire OXI08BD UK IanTitHey BotanyDepartment The NaturalHistoryMuseum CromwellRoad LondonSW7SBD UK