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Nekton-habitat associations in Yaquina Bay, Oregon - March 2008
Citation:
FERRARO, S. P. AND F. A. COLE. Nekton-habitat associations in Yaquina Bay, Oregon - March 2008. Presented at 31st Annual Meeting of the Pacific Estuarine Research Society, Newport, OR, February 28 - March 01, 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
We conducted a 3-year field study to determine the relative nekton usage of 4 intertidal habitats (eelgrass [Zostera marina], mud shrimp [Upogebia pugettensis], ghost shrimp [Neotrypaea californiensis], and unvegetated sand) in Yaquina Bay, Oregon.
Description:
We conducted a 3-year field study to determine the relative nekton usage of 4 intertidal habitats (eelgrass [Zostera marina], mud shrimp [Upogebia pugettensis], ghost shrimp [Neotrypaea californiensis], and unvegetated sand) in Yaquina Bay, Oregon. Nekton samples were collected using a drop sampler in water ~1 m deep at random stations within each habitat during 2 sampling periods (July─September) in 1998 and 4 sampling periods (June─November) in 1999 and 2000. Over 10,000 individuals and 64 nekton taxa were collected in 454 samples. The relative means of 11 community-level metrics (total nekton mean number of species [S], abundance [A], biomass [B], and Brillouin’s diversity index [H], fish community S, A, and B, crab community S, A, and B, and shrimp community A) were not significantly different across habitats in all the sampling periods, indicating temporally consistent nekton−habitat associations. The habitat rank order on total nekton S, A, B, and H was eelgrass mud shrimp ghost shrimp unvegetated sand. The nekton−habitat associations identified in this study increase our understanding of nekton spatial and temporal distributional ecology and have practical applications in environmental science and conservation, preservation, and restoration ecology.