Tuesday, May 27, 2008
361

Remnant rice field benthos and E. coli contamination

William R. English1, Jeremy W. Pike1, Matthew Musick1, Ernie P. Wiggers2, and Louwanda Jolley1. (1) Forestry and Natural Resources, Clemson University, 261 Lehotsky Hall, Clemson, SC 29634, (2) Nemours Wildlife Foundation, Nemours Wildlife Center, 239 Stroban Rd., 333, Seabrook, SC 29940

The ACE basin is a 142,000 ha estuarine complex formed by the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers along the southeastern coast of SC. Like all coastal South Carolina, the ACE basin is heavily impacted by anthropogenic activity that started in the 1700’s with the development of rice farming. Today, over 28,000 ha of remnant rice fields remain encompassed by earthen dikes with functional water control structures. Another 30,000 ha of previously impounded rice fields lack water control structures.  In remnant rice fields with water control structures, water level is managed primarily for waterfowl.  Little information exist on these impounded systems and how 200 yrs of management has altered this ecosystem. Our research found benthic macroinvertebrate total numbers, taxa richness and AFDWs were not different between managed and unmanaged rice fields and natural tidal creeks.  Present day management is of concern to regulatory agencies because high bacteria levels and closure of downstream oyster beds coincides with the timing of rice field drainage. The counts of E. coli leaving the managed rice fields during the annual drawdown, unmanaged rice fields and natural tidal creeks were all below EPA standards of 126 counts/100 ml.


Web Page: Ricefield, Benthos, E. coli

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