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Automatic Image Processing to Determine the Community Size Structure of Riverine Macroinvertebrates
Published on: January 13, 2023
Spatial patterns of macrobenthic communities in shallow-water tidal embayments and their association with
Yong Q Tian1, Jianjun Wang, John A Duff
1Department of Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Boston, MA 02125, USA.
Abstract:
This study examines the distribution, composition, and structure of benthic communities in nine shallow-water semienclosed embayments on Cape Cod, southeastern Massachusetts. The spatial patterns were used to associate benthic characteristics with local environmental factors. Field data from multiple years were collected to measure macrofaunal abundance, community composition, and environmental characteristics. Multivariate statistics were used to analyze the spatial variations of species composition and the abundance of benthic macrofauna. Canonical ordination, specifically redundancy analysis, was used to determine the relative importance of the environmental factors (nutrients and habitat factors) being studied. The analyses demonstrate that the benthic communities in the shallow tidal embayments are clearly clustered in association with the local environments. Species composition and community structure of the benthic macrofauna are significantly correlated with water column parameters, especially with phytoplankton biomass, total nitrogen, and dissolved oxygen.
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