Field Sites

We sampled 106 sites in five tidal estuarine/riverine areas of the Mississippi coast including Grand Bay NERR, Pascagoula R., Biloxi Back Bay/Tchoutacabouffa R, St. Louis Bay/Jourdan R, and Pearl R.  In addition to the SAV species present, shoreline vegetation, salinity, water depth and sediment type were recorded at each station. Further geographic information for each station was extracted from maps and included distance from the ocean, stream order, shoreline configuration (inlets, bend/linear), and aspect (compass bearing when standing on the shore).

This is a map of the locations sampled in coastal Mississippi and Mobile Bay, AL.

This is an example of using Google Earth to locate SAV and then extract geographic information about the site in Mary Walker Bayou, Pascagoula River, Jackson County, MS. This site is dominated by Vallisneria americana, fringing vegetation is primarily black needlerush, it is in low salinity brackish water, has fine muddy sediments, the water depth at the deeper edge of the SAV is about 3.3 ft (1 meter) and has a gradual slope. From the satellite images we extracted information such as distance to the ocean = 6km, stream order = 2, the open water is facing east of the shoreline, it is located on the outside bank of a meander (concave shape), and there are small inlets nearby.