John Portnoy

John Portnoy holds degrees in biology (BA), wildlife biology (MS) and marine ecology (PhD).  He has lived in Wellfleet since 1979, and worked as an ecologist for Cape Cod National Seashore from 1979 to 2008.  While at the Seashore, much of his research was focused on diked outer Cape Cod estuaries including Hatches Harbor (Provincetown), East Harbor (Truro), Pamet River (Truro) and Herring River (Wellfleet & Truro), where he studied  diking and drainage effects on hydrology, water quality, vegetation, aquatic animals including mosquitoes, and chemical cycling. He received both the National Park Service and the US Department of the Interior Environmental Achievement Awards for his Herring River work in 2006. 
During retirement, John has remained in Wellfleet to work the family farm (Narrow Land Farm, off Gull Pond Road) and volunteer on the Friends of Herring River Board of Directors. He continues to volunteer for the Town on various committees involved with natural resources; over the years he helped write Wellfleet’s first Open Space, Shellfish Management and Harbor Management Plans.
John’s scientific publications listed below show the depth and breadth of his work and experience at Herring River.  All listed papers were published in peer-reviewed scientific books or journals except for the last item: a Herring River history.
Portnoy, J.W. 1984.  Salt marsh diking and nuisance mosquito production on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Jounal of the American Mosquito Control Association 44:560-564.

Soukup, M.A. & J.W. Portnoy. 1986.  Impacts from mosquito control-induced sulfur mobilization in a Cape Cod estuary. Environ. Conserv. 13:47-50.

Portnoy, J.W., C.T. Roman & M.A. Soukup. 1987.  Hydrologic and chemical impacts of diking and draining of a small estuary (Cape Cod National Seashore): Effects on wildlife and fisheries. pp. 253-265 in Whitman, W.R. & W.H. Meredith (eds.). Proceedings of a Symposium on Waterfowl and Wetlands Management in the Coastal Zone of the Atlantic Flyway. Delaware Coastal Management Program, Dover. 522 pp.

Portnoy, J.W. 1991.  Summer oxygen depletion in a diked New England estuary.  Estuaries 14:122-129. 

Nuttle, W.K. & J.W. Portnoy. 1992.  Effect of rising sea level on runoff and groundwater discharge to coastal ecosystems.  Estuaries, Coastal and Shelf Science 34:203-212.  

Portnoy, J.W. & A.E. Giblin. 1997.  Effects of historic tidal restrictions on salt marsh sediment chemistry.  Biogeochemistry 36:275-303.

Portnoy, J.W. & A.E. Giblin. 1997.  Biogeochemical effects of seawater restoration to diked salt marshes.  Ecological Applications 7:1054-1063.

Portnoy, J.W. & I. Valiela. 1997.  Short-term effects of salinity reduction and drainage on salt marsh biogeochemistry and Spartina production.  Estuaries 20:569-578.

Portnoy, J.W., B.L. Nowicki, C.T. Roman & D. Urish.  1998. The discharge of nitrate-contaminated groundwater from developed shoreline to marsh-fringed estuary. Water Resources Research 34:3095-3104.

Portnoy, J.W. 1999. Salt marsh diking and restoration: Biogeochemical implications of altered wetland hydrology.  Environmental Management 24:111-120.

Masterson, J..P. & J.W. Portnoy. 2005.  Potential changes in ground-water flow and their effects on the ecology and water resources of the Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts.  US Geological Survey. General Information Product 13.

Portnoy, J.W. & J. R. Allen. 2006.  Effects of tidal restrictions and potential benefits of tidal restoration on fecal coliform and shellfish-water quality.  Journal of Shellfish Research 25:609-617.

Portnoy, J. W. 2012. Salt Marsh Restoration at Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts:  The Role of Science in Addressing Societal Concerns. Pp. 299-314 In C.T. Roman & D. Burdick (eds.) Tidal Marsh Restoration: a Synthesis of Science and Management.  Society for Ecological Restoration, Island Press.

Portnoy, J.W.  A.M. Iacuessa, & B.A. Brennessel.  2016. Tidal Water: A History of Wellfleet’s Herring River. 103 p.