An Overview of Barnegat Bay New Jersey Habitats of the Barnegat Bay Ecosystem OCC 2012

An Overview of Barnegat Bay New Jersey

Habitats of the Barnegat Bay Ecosystem

OCC

2012

Barnegat Bay is one of 28 Estuaries in the United States to be funded through the National Estuary Program

Over 550,000 people now reside in the Barnegat Bay Watershed (2010)

Manasquan Inlet

Barnegat Inlet

Little Egg Inlet

Barnegat Inlet

N

The length of Barnegat Bay is approximately 64 km

Barnegat Bay and its Watershed encompasses over 660 square miles (BBEP Characterization 2001)

The entire Barnegat Bay system has a mean 50 day flush rate (over 30 days in winter and 74 days in summer (Kennish).

Estuaries as Habitats• Estuaries provide multiple habitat types

including marshes, marsh pools, tidal creeks, and shoreline deep water habitats

• Finfish can inhabit specific habitats with fish being considered seasonal residents (19%), residents (21%), nursery (38%) or strays (22%) in a study on Great Bay and Little Egg Harbor (Able et al. 1996 in Estuarine Shores).

Submerged Aquatic Vegetation

•In some estuaries over 300 species of fish reside all in which SAV is important:

•Provide habitat for juveniles

•Key source of oxygen production

•Important part of nutrient cycling

•Binds and stabilizes sediments

Marsh Zonation

• High Marsh – Not flooded regularly with predominant Spartina patens and Phragmites– Series of marsh pools at higher elevations

• Low Marsh – Floods regularly with Spartina alterniflora– Creeks and ditches with sometimes tidal effects – Support a higher density of finfish than SAV beds

(Sogard and Able 1991).

Jones & Strange 2006

Jones & Strange 2006

Jones & Strange 2006

Barnegat Bay: Anthropogenic Effects

• Nutrient Runoff makes it a highly eutrophic system (US EPA)

• Thermal Pollution from surface water cooling system at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Facility

• Reduction in shellfish stocks due to changes in water quality, specific shellfish diseases and consumption

NJDEP May 2011

NJDEP May 2011

Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Facility – The First Nuclear Generating Facility Operated in the United States (1969). Slated to be closed in 2019

Aerial View of N. Long Beach Island Aerial View of Island Beach State ParkIsland

Courtesy of Dr. Jill Lipotti, NJDEP

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Ambient Water Quality Monitoring Program (13 Tributary Sites along Barnegat Bay)

Source: NJDEP June 2011

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