One hundred years of monitoring in the St. Croix Estuary provides insight into the decade to decade changes in sea surface temperature and surface salinity, helping researchers to better understand the timing of these seasonal cycles and how this might affect the dozens of plankton species inhabiting the area.
A research project to review the 100 years of monitoring has recently been completed by the Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership with funding from Environment Canada and in-kind support from DFO and the St. Croix Schoodic Band of the Passamaquoddy Nation. “The aim of the project was to improve our understanding of the diversity, concentration and phenology of plankton populations in St. Croix Estuary,” explains Marianne Janowicz, Chairperson of the Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership (BoFEP).
The project reveals salinity is most variable during the months of April and May, corresponding to the spring runoff in which excess fresh water pours into the bay. Plankton diversity is greatest during the month of September, when surface salinity is both highest and least variable. And while biological diversity and concentration varies over the sampling period, the data shows herring and winter flounder appear to be more abundant now than they were in the past.
Since 1916, data has been collected from the Prince 6 monitoring station using a variety of methods, from weather observations and basic thermometers to plankton tows and sophisticated temperature and depth recorders. Variables included sea surface temperature, surface salinity, water colour, air temperature and plankton concentration.
The project involved analysing samples from approximately 1830 tows that took place between 1916 and 2014 at the Prince 6 monitoring station. “Time-series studies of this magnitude are rare,” explains F.J. Fife, R.L.M. Goreham and F.H. Page, authors of the report, “A century of monitoring station Prince 6 in the St. Croix River estuary of Passamaquoddy Bay.” “Yet they are crucial to identification of long-term ecological trends and regime shifts as well as to the development of adaptive management strategies.” Full report:
One hundred years of monitoring in the St. Croix Estuary (MS Word Document)
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