While the record floods that struck Rhode Island in late March and early April caused significant damage and disruption, there may be one positive effect. The flood runoff into Narragansett Bay may improve the health of the Bay’s fisheries.
Scientists at the Narragansett Laboratory of NOAA’s Fisheries Service have been assessing the changing conditions of Narragansett Bay on a monthly basis for the past 12 years in collaboration with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and the University of Rhode Island.
Using a towed sampling system called the Mariner Shuttle, the monthly surveys record biological, chemical, and physical characteristics of the Bay’s ecosystem from surface to bottom. Researchers have used the survey data to construct a baseline of normal conditions over the course of a year. The conditions found on the April 8 survey, days after the torrential rains, were far from normal.
“The flood runoff produced the lowest salinity surface water and the highest April concentrations of phytoplankton ever measured during the 12 years of the study,” said Mark Berman, an oceanographer in the Laboratory’s marine ecosystems group. “A week after the flooding, the low salinity surface plume was evident all the way to the mouth of Narragansett Bay.”
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