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INDEX OF ESTUARINE BENTHIC INTEGRITY FOR GULF OF MEXICO ESTUARIES
Citation:
Engle, V D. AND J K. Summers. INDEX OF ESTUARINE BENTHIC INTEGRITY FOR GULF OF MEXICO ESTUARIES. Presented at Gulf of Mexico Symposium 2000, Mobile, AL, April 9-12, 2000.
Description:
A benthic index for northern Gulf of Mexico estuaries has been developed and successfully validated by the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program for Estuaries (EMAP-E) in the Louisianian Province. The benthic index is a useful indicator of estuarine condition that provides environmental managers with a simple tool for assesing the health of benthic macroinvertebrate communities. Associations between the benthic index and indicators of hypoxia, sediment contamination, and sediment toxicity were investigated to determine the cause(s) of degraded benthic condition. On a local scale the results showed that, while associations between the benthic index and environmental stressors were evident, the nature of the stressors differed among estuaries. In Pensacola Bay, FL, for example, there was a significant association between levels of toxic chemicals (e.g. DDT, silver, and TBT) in the sediment and the benthic index, especially in the bayous which have known contamination problems. In Mobile Bay, however, degraded benthic communities were associated with eutrophication and hypoxia. The benthic index has proven to be a valuable tool for identifying areas of potential degradation and tracking the status of environmental condition in estuaries.