1. Understanding Water and its Role in our Lives and our Environment
Water Conservation and Protection in the Barnegat Bay Watershed
© Amanda Traina and Louise Wootton

2. POP QUIZ!!! WATER FACTS!!! What’s Do You Know about Water?

3. How much of the earth's water is ocean?
B) 30%
C) 75%
D) 95%
Answer 95%

4. What atoms make up a water molecule?
A) ABC
B) CO2
C) Ca
D) H2O
Answer H2O

5. Which country has the highest average daily water use per person
1,268 gallons
945 gallons
1,565 gallons
668 gallons
334 gallons
A) Canada
B) Australia
C ) United States
D) Japan
E) China
Answer the United States (Estimate includes water used to make things consumed in the home as well as water directly used within the home)

6. The human body is made up of _____% water.
C) 66%
D) 30%
Answer 66% (actually varies from 55 to 78% depending on body size)

7. Ground Water enters ocean Ground Water
Condensation
Precipitation
Run-off
Evaporation
Infiltration
Fresh Water Storage
Run-off
Review key processes:
Evaporation
Condensation
Precipitation (talk about forms – rain, snow, hail etc)
Surface flow = run off
Infiltration = water moving into soil becoming part of GROUND WATER
Ground Water enters ocean
Ground Water

9. Groundwater
This graphic reinforces idea that the ocean is the biggest part of planet’s water
Breaks down the precious fresh water segment. Note largest part is frozen in ice, mostly at the 2 poles
After that next biggest amount of water is groundwater

10. Aquifer
Water-bearing rock readily transmits water to wells and springs
Precipitation eventually adds water into the porous rock of the aquifer.
Ground water is mostly found stored in porous rocks called aquifers

11. In New Jersey and many other places, much of the water that we use in our homes comes not from rivers or streams but from aquifers. We access that water by building wells. When we do this, there is less water in the aquifers, which start to dry out.

12. Focus on the Barnegat Bay
Water in your Home Ecosystem

13. 42 miles Long. Not very deep (average about 5 feet)
42 miles Long. Not very deep (average about 5 feet). Deep channel in middle is maintained by dredging.
Opens to ocean via Barnegat Inlet, BayHead-Manasquan Canal (Manasquan Inlet), Little Egg Harbor Inlet. Areas near openings salty. Areas near rivers fresher. Separated from ocean by the Island Beach and Long Beach Barrier Islands 13

14. Barnegat Bay Watershed
Lands vary from coastal dune, marshes, interior pine barrens
Covers 660 square miles of water, pinelands, towns, and open space!
Watershed is “all of the Elevated Land that drains into a given body of water”
For Barnegat Bay, this includes the ground water and surface water from rivers like Toms River, Metedeconk, Cedar Creek and Mill Creek
500,000 people live in watershed. Nearly a Million!!! In the summer 14

15. Point Pleasant Boardwalk Metedeconk River
Toms River
Huddy Park
Seaside Heights Boardwalk
Beachwood Elementary
William Dudley Park
Island Beach State Park
Clamming Creek
Some places of ibterest 15

16. Island Beach State Park
Beachwood Elementary
Huddy Park
Toms River
Clamming Creek
Metedeconk River
Island Beach State Park
Point Pleasant Boardwalk
Seaside Heights Boardwalk
William Dudley Park 16

17. Barnegat Bay Estuary
Estuary is the point at the end of a river where freshwater and seawater mix resulting in salt levels that are higher than freshwater and lower than the ocean (brackish water)
Barnegat gets water from surface run off (rivers and streams) and from ground water (aquifers). When humans remove water from the rivers streams and aquifers, less fresh water flows into the estuary and this changes the balance of salinity within the estuary (in this case within the Barnegat Bay) 17

18. Salinity levels along an estuary
Ocean
River
Fresh water flow
Salinity levels In an estuary vary depending on location (near the river is fresher, near the ocean is saltier)
The more water flows in to the estuary from river and ground water, the larger the area of low salt (brackish water) within the estuary. A bunch of unique animals live in brackish water habitats. When humans use more water, the levels of river and groundwater flow go down, and the estuary gets saltier, leaving less brackish habitat for those animals.

19. Organisms of the Barnegat Bay Estuary
More than 180 species of algae (mostly tiny phytoplankton) reported from Barnegat Bay
Home to more than 100 species of fish
Many species of crab, shrimp, snail, clam etc. live under its waters
Thousands of waterbirds nest on its beaches and fish in its waters
Some of the animals that are associated with brackish habitats include
Deposit Feeders: Mussels, barnacles, crabs, amphipods, free swimming mysids (a kind of shrimp), worms, crustaceans, and clams
Bottom feeding: white flounder, bluefish, weakfish, summer flounder, menhaden, black sea bass 19

20. Some of the animals that are associated with brackish habitats include
Deposit Feeders: Mussels, barnacles, crabs, amphipods, free swimming mysids (a kind of shrimp), worms, crustaceans, and clams
Bottom feeding: white flounder, bluefish, weakfish, summer flounder, menhaden, black sea bass 20

21. What is a food chain?
A food chain is “a sequence of organisms, each of which uses the next, lower member of the sequence as a food source1”

22. What is a producer?
An organism that creates it’s own food, usually through photosynthesis
What can you think of that might be the most common source of energy for all producers?
The SUN

23. Important facts about food chains
In a food chain, each organism obtains energy from the one at the level below.
Plants are called producers because they create their own food through photosynthesis
Animals are consumers because they cannot create their own food, they must eat (consume) plants or other animals to get the energy they need.

24. Primary Producers
Primary producers are “organisms capable of producing their own food”
We can also say that they are photosynthetic, use light energy.
Examples of primary producers include algae, phytoplankton, and large plants.
Primary producers are eaten by primary consumers (herbivores)

25. Primary Producers of Barnegat Bay
Eelgrass
Diatoms
These plants and algae are the base of the food chain. Many are very sensitive to salinity and will only grow in brackish habitats,
Eel grass is key to a healthy bay. It is not just food but provides a place to live / hide for lots of animals. Without eelgrass many of the animals in the bay could not survive. When nutrients are added the algae like diatoms and flagellates can grow very strongly and they shade out the eelgrass making it die because it can’t get enough light for photosynthesis. Thus CLEAN (not polluted with nutrients) BRACKISH (mix of fresh and salt) water is needed for this plant to thrive and thus for a healthy ecosystem in the Barnegat Bay
Dinoflagellates
Microflagellates

26. Four types of consumer Herbivores: animals that eat only plants
Carnivores: animals that eat only other animals
Omnivores: animals that eat animals and plants
Detritivores: Animals that eat dead materials and organic wastes (aka decomposers)

27. Other Ways to Classify Consumers
Primary Consumers: Herbivores
Secondary Consumers: Carnivores that eat herbivores
Tertiary Consumers: Carnivores that eat other carnivores

28. Primary Consumers in Barnegat Bay
Grass Cerith (a type of snail; eats mostly Eelgrass)

29. Primary Consumers in Barnegat Bay
Eelgrass Pill Bug (eats Eelgrass)

30. Secondary Consumers Blue Crab (eats worms, snails, etc.)

31. Tertiary Consumers
Eat other animals in marsh including voles, fish, and other types of birds
Osprey
Sandpiper

32. Omnivore Mallard ducks eats invertebrates, fish, amphibians, plants

33. Detritivore
Worms are common detritivores in many ecosystems including Barnegat Bay

34. What is a food web?
A food web is “an interlocking pattern of food chains”

35. Barnegat Bay Estuary
1 Eel grass 2. Eaten by Amphipod which is eaten by (3) Stickleback Clam (eats algae esp diatoms). 5 Blue crab eats clam, fish and even amphipods and 6 Striped Bass Eat clams, crabs other fish and amphipods 35

36. Human Impact on Barnegat Bay Estuary
Estuaries are fragile ecosystems and so are susceptible to disturbances
Estuaries are threatened by impacts from human activities
Coastal erosion
Water pollution
Habitat destruction
Excess Water Consumption
If we increase population without changing behavior We increase water consumption
We decrease ground water and Fresh water, increase amount of salt water in bay And decrease the brackish water area Decreases the special species that thrive there
Also more people = more pollution, more habitat turned to homes, roads and stores (habitat destruction)
Coastal erosion can result when people walk on dunes or remove the plants there to build their homes and boardwalks 36

37. Why Care?
Water supply for seaside towns such as Seaside Heights and Point Pleasant Beach affected
Well for water supply in
a coastal town
Normally the light blue (freshwater) is running down hill and PUSHES out into the ocean keeping the salt out. BUT
If we pull too much freshwater from aquifers, we actually start to pull salt water into those rocks from the ocean.
Then a well that went down into the aquifer in a seaside town would start to fill with brackish rather than fresh water 37

38. Why Care?
Too much salt water intrusion into estuary (resulting from low river flow) can make certain animals in estuary die, along with grasses they eat.
About 85% of the fish and shellfish sold in world spend all or part of lives in estuaries
If we pull too much freshwater from aquifers, we actually start to pull salt water into those rocks from the ocean.
This “intrusion” of saltwater
Salt water intrusion into the usual brackish mix causes problems in drinking water.
Seaside towns such as Seaside Heights and Point Pleasant Beach affected
Too much salt water intrusion into estuary can make certain species in estuary die along with grasses they eat.
About 85% of the fishes and shellfishes sold in world spend all or part of lives in estuaries 38

39. Why Care?
Desalination plants (top) may be needed to get freshwater to drink / bathe in (expensive)
Too much salt in estuary may cause species that need the lower salinities to die

40. As more people move into the water shed, more water is withdrawn from aquifers, rivers and streams. This means less water flows into the bay, causing it to get saltier. This in turn means that many of the animals and plants that usually live there are no longer able to survive.

41. Show You Care
Be Aware!