The shallow-water macrobenthos of a northern New England estuary

✍ Scribed by P. F. Larsen

• Book ID: 104752668
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1979
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 876 KB
• Volume: 55
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0025-3162
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00391719

✦ Synopsis

In November 1973 the benthic macrofauna of two shallow-water areas in the lower Sheepscot River estuary (New England, USA) was quantitatively sampled. Numerical classification of the data, in both the normal and inverse modes, produced 4 sitegroups and 7 species-groups. Each site-group was characterized by at least one of the species-groups. The fauna of the site-groups differed in several community parameters, particularly the patterns of dominance, but it was not possible to correlate these differences with any of the several extrinsic factors measured. A factor, or factors, related to water-column stability is the probable overriding ecological determinant of the observed community patterns. Comparisons with an earlier investigation in 1955 demonstrate dramatic changes in density, dominance and species composition.