Waterfront housing developments: their effect on the ecology of a Texas estuarine area.

Studies were conducted during 1969 to compare the ecology of a natural estuarine area altered by channelization, bulkheading, and filling. In each area, hydrographic factors, fishes, crustaceans, and benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled. Setting, growth, and mortality rates of juvenile oysters were measured. In general, productivity was highest in the marsh, intermediate in the canals of the altered areas and lowest in the open bay. If the altered area is not self-supporting and if areas of marsh are developed in ways similar to the present, then biological productivity of the estuarine zone will be reduced in relation to the acres of marsh altered.