|
Bennett Branch, Bowden Road, Southeastern Duval County, Florida |
|
|
As part of an on-going project to formally document the presence of
Pomacea paludosa (Say,
1829) [Florida Applesnail]
in northeast Florida, a visit was made to a small drainage ditch
(Bennett Branch) in a residential area of southeastern Duval County on
10/20/2005.
The ditch in question flows north to south under Bowden Road via a
concrete box culvert just east of the intersection of Bowden Road and
Southpoint Parkway. In addition to the normal water flow of the ditch,
it also drains two medium sized retention ponds located immediately to
the north of Bowden Road. Ultimately, the ditch flows into the Pottsburg
Creek Watershed.
Upon arrival in the area, I found a minimal number of Pomacea paludosa eggs on the box culvert just north of Bowden Road. The ditch was then investigated upstream, along with the two retention ponds, but no further evidence of Pomacea was seen. Across the road, the southern end of the box culvert was also found found to have additional Pomacea eggs and some egg clutches were also seen on nearby vegetation. Ultimately a single live Pomacea was seen crawling in the shallow water. While there is obviously a breeding population in the ditch, the minimal number of egg clutches seen combined with the visually apparent very poor water quality, suggests that the resident Pomacea population is quite small. The Duval County Enviromental Quality Division earlier this year sampled the water just downstream (Salisbury Road) from where the live Pomacea was found. Their tests showed a reading of 3,000 fecal coliform bacteria colonies per 100 milliliters of water. A reading of over 800 is considered a definite health risk. |
|
|
[Click on the images below for a higher resolution version.] |
|
|
|
|
| Ditch Looking North From Bowden Road | One Of The Two Retention Ponds |
|
|
|
|
South Of The Road Where The Pomacea Was Found |
|
|
List of species from the Bennett Branch local area |
|
|
Aquatic Species
Terrestrial Species
|
|
|
|
|
