The Hudson River Estuary

The Hudson River Estuary, first published in 2006, is a scientific biography with relevance to similar natural systems.

Illustrations, maps, and text - distilled from the best research on the Hudson's habitats and history - invite you to explore the river yourself.

The Hudson River estuary is one of the most intensively studied estuaries in the world. Many environmental and civic groups have struggled with the conflict in the Hudson River area between the desire for a quality environment and the ever-increasing demands of an expanding human population for drinking water, electric power, efficient transportation, and waste disposal. Estuarine Research in the 1980s provides a synoptic overview of the research conducted on the Hudson estuary since 1980. The essays reflect diverse studies of the physical, chemical, and biological ecology of the Hudson River estuary. Included are historical studies of water flow through the estuary; a model to predict the effect of increased withdrawals of fresh water; a summary of the movements of radionuclides from power plants and atmospheric fallout within the Hudson watershed; and a paper on sedimentation in New York harbor. Several essays are devoted to surveys of the fishes of special parts of the estuary. Others deal with the life histories, movements, and population dynamics of individual species. Also included are a section of fisheries methods, including the effects of sampling additional habitats; a study of the effects of channel dredging on water quality; reviews of indices of population abundance; a review of the quality control procedures used in utility-sponsored research; a model of the effects of compensation on the risk of population decline and extinction; a study addressing the energetics of the lower food web; and a plea for the restoration of the badly polluted Croton Bay.

This book provides an overview of the ecology of the Hudson River.

Biologists, historians, and social scientists explore the reciprocal relationships between humans and the Hudson River.

The Ecosystems Research Center (ERC) was established at Cornell U ni versity in October 1980 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the goals of: 1. Identifying fundamental principles and concepts of ecosystems sci ence and the determination of their importance in understanding and pre dicting the responses of ecosystems to stress, the description of the basic mechanisms that operate within ecosystems, and an examination of the stability of ecosystem structure and function in the face of stress. 2. Testing the applicability of those theoretical concepts to problems of concern to the EPA through a consideration of retrospective and other case studies. In line with these goals, the Hudson River ecosystem provided the basis for the first major retrospective study undertaken by the ERC. The goal of the project was to develop recommendations concerning how ecosystem monitoring can and should be carried out in support of EPA's regulatory responsibilities. Our hope was and is that the experience gained from this study will be broadly applicable to a range of manage ment problems involving estuarine ecosystems, and will lead to more effective regulation.