Folders: ROOT > ScienceBase Catalog > USGS National Research Program > USGS National Research Program Projects > Environmental Influences on Estuarine Benthic Community Dynamics ( Show all descendants )
2 results (7ms)
Location
Folder
ROOT _ScienceBase Catalog __USGS National Research Program ___USGS National Research Program Projects ____Environmental Influences on Estuarine Benthic Community Dynamics Filters
Date Range
Extensions Types Contacts Categories |
Ecologists studying coastal and estuarine benthic communities have long taken a macroecological view, by relating benthic community patterns to environmental factors across several spatial scales. Although many general ecological patterns have been established, often a significant amount of the spatial and temporal variation in soft-sediment communities within and among systems remains unexplained. Here we propose a framework that may aid in unraveling the complex influence of environmental factors associated with the different components of coastal systems (i.e. the terrestrial and benthic landscapes, and the hydrological seascape) on benthic communities, and use this information to assess the role played by benthos...
Categories: Publication;
Types: Citation;
Tags: Benthic,
Coastal,
Estuary,
Functional groups,
geomorph
Data from quantitative samples of the benthos at a 200-m site in central Puget Sound, collected twice yearly in most years between 1963 and 1992, were evaluated to determine the extent to which species composition in a continental-shelf depth community exhibits long-term persistence. Study results showed that the most abundant species were consistently present over the 30-year period. However, measures of species composition (e.g., similarity, diversity) reveal a subtle, gradual change in the community over time. Among the changes are (1) multi-year periods of greatly increased abundance of the common species; (2) an overall increase in the total abundance of the benthic community beginning in the mid-1970s; (3)...
Categories: Publication;
Types: Citation;
Tags: Hydrobiol,
benthic community,
climate change,
ecology
|