First page Back Continue Last page Overview Text
Notes:
and then one a little bit farther south. We modeled a simulated spring bloom which is the upper line on the graph there under low turbidity conditions, and then we added increasing amounts of sediment to the model to look at the effects of the reduction in light on the phytoplankton bloom. And, as you can see, what we expected was a drop in the biomass. What we are looking at here right at the dredge is about a 50 to 90 percent decrease in biomass at that particular point. When we move down to Point 2 under both the no-project and the project conditions, we are outside of the plume and we do not see an effect. Both lines are on top of each other. So what we are seeing there is a localized effect. If that were averaged over the entire Bay, assuming that productivity was homogenous over the entire Bay, which it is not, usually, we would see an approximately 1-2 percent decrease overall.