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Biodiversity in Hudson River shore zones: influence of shoreline type and physical structure

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Abstract

The shore zones of the Hudson River, like those of many developed waterways, are highly varied, containing a mix of seminatural and highly engineered shores. Our goal was to document the biodiversity supported by different kinds of shore zones in the Hudson. We chose six common types of shore zones, three of them “natural” (sand, unconsolidated rock, and bedrock), and three of them engineered (riprap, cribbing, and bulkheads). We measured selected physical characteristics (shore zone width, exposure, substrate roughness and grain size, shoreline complexity) of three examples of each of these shore types, and also sampled communities of terrestrial plants, fishes, and aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates. Community composition of most taxa differed across shore types, and frequently differed between wide, sheltered shores and narrow, exposed shores. Alien plant species were especially well represented along engineered shores. Nevertheless, a great deal of variation in biological communities was not explained by our six-class categorization of shore zones or the physical variables that we measured. No single shore type supported the highest values of all kinds of biodiversity, but engineered shore zones (especially cribbing and bulkheads) tended to have less desirable biodiversity characteristics than “natural” shore zones.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Hudson River Foundation, the Tibor T. Polgar Fellowship program, and the Cooperative Institute of Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology for financial support. We appreciate technical assistance from Noah Beck, Zara Dowling, Deana Grimaldi, Robin Schmidt, and Andy Snyder, encouragement from Betsy Blair, and very helpful comments from two anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, P.O. Box AB, Millbrook, NY, 12545, USA

    David L. Strayer, Stuart E. G. Findlay, Heather M. Malcom & David T. Fischer

  2. Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Hudson River Estuary Program, Staatsburg, NY, USA

    Daniel Miller

  3. Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Thomas Coote

Authors
  1. David L. Strayer
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  2. Stuart E. G. Findlay
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  3. Daniel Miller
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  4. Heather M. Malcom
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  5. David T. Fischer
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  6. Thomas Coote
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Correspondence to David L. Strayer.

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Strayer, D.L., Findlay, S.E.G., Miller, D. et al. Biodiversity in Hudson River shore zones: influence of shoreline type and physical structure. Aquat Sci 74, 597–610 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-012-0252-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-012-0252-9

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