Transcript – Impacts of Primary Productivity on Air-Sea Gas Exchange in an Anthropogenic Estuary

Hi, my name is Dr. Katie Shamberger, I’m an assistant professor in the Department of Oceanography. I am working with Dr. Yvon-Lewis, also in oceanography, and Dr. Quigg, who’s at Texas A&M in Galveston. The name of our project is Impacts of Primary Productivity on Sea Gas Exchange in an Anthropogenic Estuary. And the estuary that we are focusing on is Galveston Bay, which is an extremely important estuary on the Texas coast. It supports a billion dollar commercial and recreational fishery, which is supported largely by oyster reefs in the bay. And it’s an extremely large estuary that has a wide range of conditions. So it’s an extremely valuable estuary to study because you can study different parts of the bay and that can apply to different estuaries worldwide. It’s also extremely affected by human activities, and that’s why we call it an anthropogenic estuary. We’re really excited about this T-3 project because it’s giving us a chance to combine our work looking at primary productivity and Arcy exchange of both natural and anthropogenic gases. So primary productivity is important because, of course, primary producers are the base of the food web and they support the entire rest of the ecosystem in the estuary, including the fisheries species that are so important to us.

Primary producers also affect gas levels within estuary waters. And one example of that is carbon dioxide levels and carbon dioxide and water forms in acid called carbonic acid. So carbon dioxide levels affect acidification levels within the estuary and oysters and oyster reefs are extremely sensitive to acidification levels. So this is very important for understanding the health of the oyster reefs within Galveston Bay. Another gas that’s very important and affected by primary producers in Galveston Bay is methane. And methane is also affected by pollution to the bay, for example, from wastewater and industrial sources. And so this T-3 project is allowing us to look at interactions between these things. So when events happen, like flooding events, for example, Hurricane Harvey, that can affect the biological community of primary producers, which can affect carbon dioxide levels, which can affect methane levels. And these three are all connected. And we want to understand, when you change one, how does that impact the others and how does that impact the health of the ecosystem within the bay? Thank you.