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Interactions between banana plantation agriculture and the land-ocean suspended sediment flux : Belize, central America.

Interactions between banana plantation agriculture and the land-ocean suspended sediment flux : Belize, central America.
Interactions between banana plantation agriculture and the land-ocean suspended sediment flux : Belize, central America.

Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) are receiving high profile international attention. A core focus of this research has been to understand how anthropogenic forcing functions interact with fluvial suspended sediment delivery to the coastal zone over time and space. Recent concern about sedimentation stress on the Belizean barrier reef has emphasised the importance of monitoring this process relative to key anthropogenic drivers of fluvial suspended sediment delivery from the land to the ocean.

Agricultural drainage channels - essential for rapidly discharging excess storm water away from the plantation to the nearest creek, were identified as fundamental mechanisms for delivering suspended sediment to the fluvial system during local storm events. Within the transfer system a provisional fluvial sediment budget was calculated from suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and discharge dynamics upstream and downstream of the characterised banana plantation unit. Results suggested that sediment load increased by approximately 200 tonnes within the budgeted reach, constituting a net increase in basin sediment yield to the coastal zone of 16% during the monitoring period. The delivery system was investigated through a feasibility study of in-situ and remote methods for monitoring the flux of sediment discharged from South Stann Creek to the Belizean coastal zone. System characterisation took place through spatial estimates of secchi transparency for insertion into a framework integrating fluvial sediment yield. A conceptual model was developed for future monitoring of the sediment flux pending forthcoming advances in observation technologies.

Monitoring and management options for the banana industry were considered within a cost-benefit model promoting the integration of science and management and the development of system understanding within the wider scale of change.

University of Southampton
Delaney, Elizabeth Kate
40021c04-7c9d-4842-b267-bb1f5e9ab31c
Delaney, Elizabeth Kate
40021c04-7c9d-4842-b267-bb1f5e9ab31c

Delaney, Elizabeth Kate (2000) Interactions between banana plantation agriculture and the land-ocean suspended sediment flux : Belize, central America. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) are receiving high profile international attention. A core focus of this research has been to understand how anthropogenic forcing functions interact with fluvial suspended sediment delivery to the coastal zone over time and space. Recent concern about sedimentation stress on the Belizean barrier reef has emphasised the importance of monitoring this process relative to key anthropogenic drivers of fluvial suspended sediment delivery from the land to the ocean.

Agricultural drainage channels - essential for rapidly discharging excess storm water away from the plantation to the nearest creek, were identified as fundamental mechanisms for delivering suspended sediment to the fluvial system during local storm events. Within the transfer system a provisional fluvial sediment budget was calculated from suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and discharge dynamics upstream and downstream of the characterised banana plantation unit. Results suggested that sediment load increased by approximately 200 tonnes within the budgeted reach, constituting a net increase in basin sediment yield to the coastal zone of 16% during the monitoring period. The delivery system was investigated through a feasibility study of in-situ and remote methods for monitoring the flux of sediment discharged from South Stann Creek to the Belizean coastal zone. System characterisation took place through spatial estimates of secchi transparency for insertion into a framework integrating fluvial sediment yield. A conceptual model was developed for future monitoring of the sediment flux pending forthcoming advances in observation technologies.

Monitoring and management options for the banana industry were considered within a cost-benefit model promoting the integration of science and management and the development of system understanding within the wider scale of change.

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Published date: 2000

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 464194
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/464194
PURE UUID: 6d41c8d3-ea12-435c-81aa-2039f638764d

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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 21:32
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 19:20

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Contributors

Author: Elizabeth Kate Delaney

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