You are here:
Habitats as ecological templates and their utility in ecological resource management
Citation:
FERRARO, S. P. Habitats as ecological templates and their utility in ecological resource management. Presented at 32nd Annual Meeting of the Pacific Estuarine Research Society, Bellingham, WA, April 02 - 06, 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
The kind, distribution and abundance of estuarine organisms largely depend upon the habitats present.
Description:
The kind, distribution and abundance of estuarine organisms largely depend upon the habitats present. Consequently, as habitats change so may organisms in the landscape together with the ecosystem goods and services they provide. At estuary scale, sediment features (sand; mud), the presence of habitat-forming ecosystem engineering species (eelgrass; dwarf eelgrass; mud shrimp; ghost shrimp; oysters), and bathymetry (intertidal; subtidal) are effective habitat classifiers for benthic macrofauna in the US Pacific Northwest. The presence/absence of eelgrass, mud shrimp and ghost shrimp are also effective habitat classifiers for intertidal nekton. These habitats are also alternative states subject to change as a function of major natural and anthropogenic stressors: sedimentation, excess nutrients, invasive/non-indigenous species, and sea level rise. Spatially and temporally repeating patterns of ecological indicators, including species richness, abundance, biomass, diversity, and Bray-Curtis similarity, indicate that these estuarine habitats are ecological templates for benthic macrofaunal and nekton communities. The demonstration of repeatable, across-habitat patterns of benthic macrofauna and nekton allows habitats to be used as surrogates for the biological information needed to make better informed resource policy and management decisions.