Impacts from Mosquito Control-Induced Sulphur Mobilization in a Cape Cod Estuary
Soukup MA and Portnoy JW. 1986. Impacts from Mosquito Control-Induced Sulphur Mobilization in a Cape Cod Estuary. Environmental Conservation. 13(1):47-50
The restriction of salt water from small estuaries by means of dikes and one-way valves has been a popular method of control for the Salt-marsh Mosquito (Aedes sollicitans) in the northeastern United States. In some instances, the resulting destruction of the salt-marsh by diking has left to the establishment of freshwater wetland vegetation and animal communities. Such freshwater marshes soon produce their own hoards of mosquitoes, however, and, in Cape Cod, drainage have been dug and maintained within the freshwater wetlands to control theses latter pests. Although the effects of diking, and especially ditching, have been hotly disputed (Daiber, 1974, 1982), there is little serious question that the combination of diking with ditching leads to desiccation of the original salt-marsh soils, premature disappearance of freshwater marsh and its flora and fauna, and rapid invasion of the marsh soils by upland vegetation. In this report, we present a case-study of even more direct destruction of the marsh-dependent fauna as a result of disturbances of the biogeochemical cycles of these wetlands following diking and drainage.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Soukup, Michael; Portnoy, John
- Units
- CACO , WRD
- Keywords
- Acidification, biogeochemical cycling, CACO, Cape Cod National Seashore, diking, Drainage, Environ Impacts, Estuarine Ecology, Herring River, mobilization, Pest Control, Restoration, Salt marsh, Sulfur, Wellfleet, Wetlands