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Eight years of regional scale, benthic assessments of the U.S. West Coast: Lessons learned and future directions
Citation:
NELSON, W. G., H. LEE, II, J. O. LAMBERSON, F. A. COLE, M. Frazier, AND P. J. CLINTON. Eight years of regional scale, benthic assessments of the U.S. West Coast: Lessons learned and future directions. Presented at Benthic Ecology Meeting, Corpus Christi, TX, March 04 - 07, 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
The EPA National Coastal Assessment (NCA) conducted regional scale assessments of benthic condition for the US West Coast from Washington to California, several regions of Alaska, Hawaii, and the Trust Territories of Guam and American Samoa.
Description:
The EPA National Coastal Assessment (NCA) conducted regional scale assessments of benthic condition for the US West Coast from Washington to California, several regions of Alaska, Hawaii, and the Trust Territories of Guam and American Samoa. Over an 8-year period, studies focused primarily on subtidal areas of estuaries and embayments, but included pilot benthic assessments of tidal wetland habitats and of the continental shelf (Washington to California). Benthic infaunal samples were collected from 1566 coastal sites. The probability based sampling design has provided quantitative estimates of coastal benthic condition, showing that chemical contamination is limited in spatial extent, while nonindigenous species are widespread. The shelf benthos is much less invaded than adjacent estuaries. The old problem of intercomparison of samples of differing surface areas remains an issue, especially across the wide bathymetric range and the variety of habitat types sampled. The NCA data is currently being coupled with other regional monitoring data to develop indices of benthic community condition. The data set is also providing new insights into nonindigenous species distribution patterns, and can help serve as a baseline for determining range modifications resulting from global climate change.