Ecosystem Restoration
Investigations of food web structure conducted
with Albrey Arrington (Perry
Institute for Marine Science) and Brian
Silliman (University of Florida) on Andros Island, Bahamas,
serve as a framework with which to plan and evaluate ecosystem
restoration efforts, i.e. restoring flow to tidal creeks.
Roads built along the coastline have at least partially blocked
tidal flow in most estuarine creeks, and a long term goal
of the Bahamian people is to reestablish flow to these systems.
Our work will provide much of the information necessary to
identify which creeks are the best candidates for restoration
efforts and, subsequently, how successful restoration efforts
are. This work is being conducted in conjunction with The
Bahamas Environmental Research Center, The Andros Conservancy
and Trust, and other non-governmental organizations on Andros
and throughout the Bahamas.
The first of the restoration efforts was recently
initiated as a part of the Restoration Field Course taught
jointly between the College of The Bahamas and the University
of Alabama. Man of War Sound was once a large estuary that
supported a rich fish and invertebrate fauna. About 60 years
ago, a small footpath was built to the ocean by people from
the local settlement. This footpath blocked the majority of
tidal flow, and eventually lead to substantial encroachment
of mangroves and increased sediment deposition. Students from
the course and local community members removed two sections
of the footpath in May 2004, thereby restoring tidal flow
to areas upstream of the blockage.
This was a relatively small effort, and in the
future we hope to expand this work in collaboration with various
partners. Larger creeks, spanned by bridges that do not allow
sufficient tidal flow, are an especially acute concern to
Bahamians, and one target of future projects.
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