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East Bay/Blackwater Bay/Yellow River Preliminary Baseline Resource

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East Bay/Blackwater Bay/Yellow River Preliminary Baseline Resource EAST BAY/BLACKWATER BAY/LOWER YELLOW RIVER PRELIMINARY BASELINE RESOURCE CHARACTERIZATION With a Discussion of Flow-dependent Habitats and Species By F. Graham Lewis, Ph.D. Northwest Florida Water Management District Water Resources Special Report 2010-02 FINAL REPORT October 2010 NORTHWEST FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ GOVERNING BOARD George Roberts, Chair Panama City Philip McMillan, Vice Chair Blountstown Steve Ghazvini, Secretary/Treasurer Tallahassee Peter Antonacci Stephanie Bloyd Joyce Estes Tallahassee Panama City Beach Eastpoint Tim Norris Jerry Pate Ralph Rish Santa Rosa Beach Pensacola Port St. Joe Douglas E. Barr Executive Director For additional information, write or call: Northwest Florida Water Management District 81 Water Management Drive Havana, Florida 32333-4712 (850) 539-5999 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of NWFWMD staff and other researchers that provided information and guidance during the development of this report. The contributions of the following NWFWMD staff are appreciatively acknowledged: Kris Barrios, Ron Bartel, Leigh Brooks, David Clayton, Christina Coger, John Crowe, Karen Kebart and Paul Thorpe. The authors also acknowledge the researchers and individuals that provided information and technical data that were referenced in this report. Among those, special thanks go to Ted Hoehn and John Knight (FFWCC) for information on freshwater fish distributions in the Yellow, Shoal and adjacent rivers, and Shelly Alexander (FDEP) for information related to the Yellow River Aquatic Preserve. Cover: John Crowe, NWFWMD TABLE OF CONTENTS ______________________________________________________________________________ 1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Surface Water Improvement and Management Program .............................................................. 1 1.2 Watershed Research and Evaluations ............................................................................................ 1 1.3 Watershed Protection and Preservation .......................................................................................... 1 1.3 Purpose and Scope .......................................................................................................................... 2 2.0 THE PENSACOLA BAY SYSTEM ...................................................................................................... 3 3.0 GENERAL FEATURES OF EAST BAY/BLACKWATER BAY ............................................................. 3 3.1 Watershed/Drainage Basins ............................................................................................................ 7 3.2 Land Use ......................................................................................................................................... 9 3.3 Freshwater Discharge ................................................................................................................... 11 3.4 Water Quality Classifications ....................................................................................................... 15 3.5 Water Quality Characteristics ....................................................................................................... 16 3.5.1 Estuarine Areas ......................................................................................................................... 17 3.5.2 Riverine Areas ........................................................................................................................... 25 3.6 Sediment Characteristics .............................................................................................................. 32 3.6.1 Physical Properties ................................................................................................................... 32 3.6.2 Sediment Contamination ........................................................................................................... 32 4.0 HABITATS ASSOCIATED WITH THE EAST BAY COMPLEX ......................................................... 36 4.1 Palustrine Forests ......................................................................................................................... 37 4.2 Fresh/Brackish Wetlands .............................................................................................................. 39 4.3 Tidal Salt Marshes ........................................................................................................................ 40 4.4 Seagrass/Submerged Aquatic Vegetation ..................................................................................... 41 4.5 Soft-bottom Habitat ...................................................................................................................... 43 4.6 Hard-bottom Habitat ..................................................................................................................... 44 5.0 FAUNAL COMMUNITIES IN THE EAST BAY/BLACKWATER BAY SYSTEM ................................. 45 5.1 Benthic Macrofauna (Infauna/Epifauna) ...................................................................................... 46 5.2 Shrimp and Crab Abundance ........................................................................................................ 52 5.3 Fish Abundance ............................................................................................................................ 53 5.4 Commercial Landings .................................................................................................................. 67 5.5 Threatened and Endangered Species ............................................................................................ 67 i 6.0 IMPORTANCE OF FRESHWATER TO THE LOWER YELLOW RIVER AND THE BLACKWATER/EAST BAY SYSTEM ........................................................................................................ 71 6.1 Species and Habitats with Freshwater Dependence ..................................................................... 71 6.2 Flow Dependence and Salinity Tolerance .................................................................................... 73 6.2.1 Palustrine Forests ..................................................................................................................... 74 6.2.2 Freshwater/Brackish Marshes ................................................................................................... 76 6.2.3 Tidal Salt Marshes ..................................................................................................................... 77 6.2.4 Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) ....................................................................................... 77 6.2.5 Oyster Reefs ............................................................................................................................... 78 6.2.6 Faunal Abundance and Distribution ......................................................................................... 79 7.0 REFERENCES CITED ..................................................................................................................... 81 8.0 APPENDICES – SALINITY TOLERANCES FOR SELECTED ORGANISMS ...................................... 94 Appendix A-1 ...................................................................................................................................... 94 Appendix A-2 ...................................................................................................................................... 98 ii LIST OF FIGURES ______________________________________________________________________________ Figure 1 Watershed of the Pensacola Bay system ..................................................................4 Figure 2 The Pensacola Bay system .......................................................................................5 Figure 3 Bathymetric profile of the Pensacola Bay system ...................................................6 Figure 4 Watersheds draining into East Bay/Blackwater Bay ...............................................8 Figure 5 Land use in the Pensacola Bay region .....................................................................9 Figure 6 Conservation and publicly owned lands surrounding the Pensacola Bay system .............................................................................................................10 Figure 7 Blackwater River discharge measured at Baker, FL, for the period from April 1950 to September 2008 ......................................................................11 Figure 8 Big Coldwater Creek discharge measured at Milton, FL, for the period from December 1938 to September 2010 ...................................................12 Figure 9 Yellow River discharge measured at Milligan, FL, for the period from August 1938 to September 2008. ..................................................................13 Figure 10 Shoal River discharge measured at Crestview, FL, for the period from August 1938 to September 2008. ..................................................................14 Figure 11 Yellow River discharge measured at the SR87 bridge near Milton, FL for the period October 2001 to September
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