Recovery of the Macrobenthos at a Dredge Site in Yaquina Bay, Oregon

摘要

Knowledge of the resilience of biological communities is important in assessing the ecological consequences of human disturbances in the marine environment. Biological recovery partly depends on the kind and degree of perturbation. This report deals with the resilience of the benthos following sediment defaunation by dredging and addresses a physical, nontoxic disturbance whose ecological effects can be compared with those of other kinds of pollution that involve chronic chemical contamination. A small dredging operation in Yaquina Bay, Oregon in October of 1975 provided an opportunity to monitor the temporal pattern of the recovery of a disrupted macrobenthic community.