Suitability of Using a Limited Number of SamplingStations to Represent Benthic Habitatsin Lavaca-Colorado Estuary, Texas

摘要

A common problem in environmental assessment is a lack of data at appropriate spa-tial and temporal scales. For example, imagine having long-term data from an adja-cent area, but none in the assessment area. One approach to solving this dilemma is toidentify the representativeness of the long-term study site. The purpose of the currentstudy is to sample a salinity gradient over broad spatial scales in the Lavaca-ColoradoEstuary to determine how well six long-term monitoring stations represent the spatialvariability of benthic communities in order to assess the influence of the ColoradoRiver. Samples were collected from 18 stations to measure benthic community struc-ture as bioindicators, and hydrographic and sediment characteristics as environmen-tal stressor indicators. In multivariate analysis, the macrobenthic communitiesseparated into five groups, of which four were represented by long-term stations.These findings demonstrate that the long-term stations are representative of environ-mental change in proximity to the Colorado River mouth and temporal dynamics at thelong-term stations are appropriate to use in inflow management studies.