Effects of Pumped Flows Into Rincon Bayou on Water Quality and Benthic Macrofauna Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program
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Effects of Pumped Flows into Rincon Bayou on Water Quality and Benthic Macrofauna Final Report CBBEP Publication - 101 Project Number –1417 August 2015 Prepared by: Dr. Paul A. Montagna, Principal Investigator Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi 6300 Ocean Dr., Unit 5869 Corpus Christi, Texas 78412 Phone: 361-825-2040 Email: [email protected] Submitted to: Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program 615 N. Upper Broadway, Suite 1200 Corpus Christi, TX 78401 The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of CBBEP or other organizations that may have provided funding for this project. Effects of Pumped Flows into Rincon Bayou on Water Quality and Benthic Macrofauna Principal Investigator: Dr. Paul A. Montagna Co-Authors: Leslie Adams, Crystal Chaloupka, Elizabeth DelRosario, Amanda Gordon, Meredyth Herdener, Richard D. Kalke, Terry A. Palmer, and Evan L. Turner Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi 6300 Ocean Drive, Unit 5869 Corpus Christi, Texas 78412 Phone: 361-825-2040 Email: [email protected] Final report submitted to: Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, Inc. 615 N. Upper Broadway, Suite 1200 Corpus Christi, TX 78401 CBBEP Project Number 1417 August 2015 Cite as: Montagna, P.A., L. Adams, C. Chaloupka, E. DelRosario, A. Gordon, M. Herdener, R.D. Kalke, T.A. Palmer, and E.L. Turner. 2015. Effects of Pumped Flows into Rincon Bayou on Water Quality and Benthic Macrofauna. Final Report to the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program for Project # 1417. Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, Texas, 46 pp. Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. ii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. iv Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... v Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Methods........................................................................................................................................... 2 Sampling ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Water Quality .............................................................................................................................. 4 Macrofauna-Infauna .................................................................................................................... 4 Macrofauna-Epifauna ................................................................................................................. 5 Analytics ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Water Quality Response to Inflow .......................................................................................... 5 Community Structure .............................................................................................................. 6 Biotic Response to Salinity ..................................................................................................... 6 Hydrology ................................................................................................................................... 7 Results ............................................................................................................................................. 8 Hydrology and Salinity ............................................................................................................... 8 Water Quality ............................................................................................................................ 18 Macroinfauna ............................................................................................................................ 21 Long-term Trend ....................................................................................................................... 21 Response to Physical Variables ................................................................................................ 27 Relationship to Water Quality .............................................................................................. 27 Relationship to Salinity ......................................................................................................... 27 Epifauna .................................................................................................................................... 35 Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 40 Biotic Response to Salinity ....................................................................................................... 40 Infauna .................................................................................................................................. 40 Epifauna ................................................................................................................................ 40 Salinity Flow Relationships ...................................................................................................... 42 Management Recommendations ............................................................................................... 43 References ..................................................................................................................................... 44 i List of Figures Figure 1. Location of the Nueces Delta within the Nueces Estuary. .............................................. 3 Figure 2. Study area with sample locations. a) State of Texas with the Nueces Basin highlighted. b) Location of Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi within the Nueces Basin. c) Location of the Nueces Delta marsh containing Rincon Bayou. ........................ 3 Figure 3. Map of station locations for measuring flow, salinity, and weather in Rincon Bayou. .. 7 Figure 4. Salinity gradient (i.e., difference between downstream SALT03 and upstream NUDE2) and pumping events. The Rincon Bayou pipeline became operation in September 2009, and width of the box indicates pumping duration. .............................................................. 9 Figure 5. Percent occurrence of salinity ranges in Rincon Bayou (NUDE2) from May 2009 to May 2015. ......................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 6. Salinity at Station C in Rincon Bayou TX, with inflow and discharge from the Rincon Bayou channel gage and pumped inflow, 2014 to 2015. .................................................. 11 Figure 7. Salinity at Station C in Rincon Bayou TX, with Rainfall from CBI NUDEWX station, 2014 to 2015. .................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 8. Pumped inflow into Rincon Bayou, TX with rainfall from CBI NUDEWX station, 2014 to 2015. .................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 9. Inflow and discharge at the Rincon Bayou overflow channel gage, and pumped inflow from 2009 - 2015. ............................................................................................................. 14 Figure 10. Flow duration curve for Nueces River inflow and discharge at the Rincon Bayou channel gage, September 2009 to May 2015. Left: full inflow scale. Right: zoom to positive inflow values only. .............................................................................................. 15 Figure 11. Percent occurrence for Nueces River inflow and discharge at the Rincon Bayou channel gage September 2009 to May 2015. .................................................................... 16 Figure 12. Percent occurrence for inflow and discharge at the Rincon Bayou channel gage before (September 2009 to June 2014) and after the installation of the freshwater inflow management structure (July 2014 to May 2015). ............................................................. 17 Figure 13. Flow duration curve for Rincon Bayou before (September 2009 to June 2014) and after the installation of the freshwater inflow management structure (July 2014 to May 2015). Left: full inflow scale. Right: zoomed to positive inflow scale only. .................. 17 Figure 14. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) of water quality variables from Station C in Rincon Bayou. Top: Variable loads. Bottom: Sample scores using the number of days since the last pumping day for each sampling date as the symbol.................................... 19 Figure 15. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) of water quality variables from Station C in Rincon Bayou. Top: Variable loads. Bottom: Sample scores using the station name as the symbol. .............................................................................................................................. 20 Figure 16. Macroinfauna abundance and salinity over time since pumping began. ..................... 21