Effects of Hydraulic Shellfish Harvesting on Benthic Communities, 2009-2013

A 5-year study from 2009 to 2013 investigated the effects of hydraulic shellfish dredging on seafloor ecology and sediment chemistry. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conducted experiments on clam beds in collaboration with local harvesters, collecting sediment samples from June to October each year. Comparisons between dredged and undredged areas found that seasonal and locational factors had a greater impact than harvesting, with shallow inshore communities showing high resilience.

Use Cases

• Modeling the resilience of benthic communities to disturbance based on seasonal and sediment grain size factors.
• Assessing the impact of hydraulic dredging on sediment chemistry parameters like pH and oxygen levels.
• Comparing population dynamics of newly settled bivalves in harvested versus unharvested seafloor areas.

Strengths

• Data collection spanned a 5-year period from 2009 to 2013, providing longitudinal insight.
• Studies were conducted in collaboration with local shellfish harvesters, suggesting real-world applicability.
• Analysis includes both biological community counts and chemical sediment parameters.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The primary data format is PDF, which may require extraction for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Sediment samples were collected over summer and early fall (June to October) from various clam beds, sorted to identify organisms and measure chemical parameters.

Time Range

2009 to 2013

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-14 22:47:11.492947; freshness should be verified.

Geography

The description mentions Long Island Sound and Milford, Connecticut, indicating a focus on the inshore coastal zone of the northeastern United States.