Browsing by Author "Schuster, Bob"

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Benethic Invertebrate Community Monitoring and Indicator Development for the Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor Estuary
(Trenton, N.J. : New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, 2017-06-21) Taghon, Gary L.; Fuller, Charlotte M.; Petrecca, Rosemarie F.; Ferko, Marc; Schuster, Bob
The possibility of using benthic macroinvertebrates as indicators of water quality has been recognized for some time. For example, Hutchinson traced the origin and meaning of the term eutrophication (Hutchinson, 1973). In its earliest application to the trophic status and productivity of lakes, the species diversity of the bottom fauna, whether or not they could tolerate low oxygen conditions, and the organic content of sediment were all included in classification of lakes as oligotrophic or eutrophic. The potential has been difficult to realize in estuarine and coastal habitats, however, because macroinvertebrates respond to many environmental variables (e.g., temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen) that can change quickly over space and time in these environments. Data collected over three years in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, were used to explore if a straightforward relationship could be found between water quality and benthic macroinvertebrates (Taghon et al., 2015). The proportion of the total abundance consisting of those species most sensitive to nutrient pollution was used as the response variable. Exploratory data analysis identified summertime water total nitrogen concentration as the best, linearly correlated (negatively) variable, accounting for 84% of the variability in the proportion of sensitive species. Other potential variables (for example, salinity, chlorophyll-a, dissolved oxygen concentration) did not meet the assumptions of linear regression models. This report includes a detailed analysis of the model. This report also includes the results of field sampling conducted in 2016. These samples were used to evaluate if the linear model could apply to “new” data that were not included in model development.
Benthic Invertebrate Community Monitoring and Indicator Development for Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor Estuary : Final Report
(Trenton, N.J. : New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Science, Research and Environmental Health, 2013-07-15) Taghon, Gary L.; Grassle, Judith P.; Fuller, Charlotte M.; Petrecca, Rosemarie F.; Ramey, Patricia; Belton, Thomas; Ferko, Marc; Schuster, Bob
The Barnegat Bay ecosystem is potentially under stress from human impacts, which have increased over the past several decades. Benthic macroinvertebrates are commonly included in studies to monitor the effects of human and natural stresses on marine and estuarine ecosystems. There are several reasons for this. Macroinvertebrates (here defined as animals retained on a 0.5-mm mesh sieve) are abundant in most coastal and estuarine sediments, typically on the order of 103 to 104 per meter squared. Benthic communities are typically composed of many taxa from different phyla, and quantitative measures of community diversity (e.g., Rosenberg et al. 2004) and the relative abundance of animals with different feeding behaviors (e.g., Weisberg et al. 1997, Pelletier et al. 2010), can be used to evaluate ecosystem health. Because most benthic invertebrates are sedentary as adults, they function as integrators, over periods of months to years, of the properties of their environment.
Benthic Invertebrate Community Monitoring and Indicator Development for Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor Estuary : Year 2, Final Report
(Trenton, N.J. : New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Science, Research and Environmental Health, 2014-06-03) Taghon, Gary L.; Grassle, Judith P.; Fuller, Charlotte M.; Petrecca, Rosemarie F.; Ramey, Patricia; Belton, Thomas; Ferko, Marc; Schuster, Bob
The Barnegat Bay ecosystem is potentially under stress from human impacts, which appear to have increased over the past several decades. Benthic macroinvertebrates are commonly included in studies to monitor the effects of human and natural stresses on marine and estuarine ecosystems. There are several reasons for this. Macroinvertebrates (here defined as animals retained on a 0.5-mm-mesh sieve) are abundant in most coastal and estuarine sediments, typically on the order of 103 to 104 individuals per meter squared. Benthic communities are typically composed of many taxa from different phyla, and quantitative measures of community diversity (e.g., Rosenberg et al. 2004) and the relative abundance of animals with different feeding behaviors (e.g., Pelletier et al. 2010, Weisberg et al. 1997), can be used to evaluate ecosystem health. Because most benthic invertebrates are sedentary as adults, they function as integrators, over periods of months to years, of the properties of their environment.
Benthic Invertebrate Community Monitoring and Indicator Development for Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor Estuary : Year 3, Final Report
(Trenton, N.J. : New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Science, Research and Environmental Health, 2015-09-08) Taghon, Gary L.; Grassle, Judith P.; Fuller, Charlotte M.; Petrecca, Rosemarie F.; Ramey, Patricia; Belton, Thomas; Ferko, Marc; Schuster, Bob
The Barnegat Bay ecosystem is potentially under stress from human impacts, which appear to have increased over the past several decades. Benthic macroinvertebrates are commonly included in studies to monitor the effects of human and natural stresses on marine and estuarine ecosystems. There are several reasons for this. Macroinvertebrates (here defined as animals retained on a 0.5-mm-mesh sieve) are abundant in most coastal and estuarine sediments, typically on the order of 103 to 104 individuals per meter squared. Benthic communities are typically composed of many taxa from different phyla, and quantitative measures of community diversity (e.g., Rosenberg et al. 2004) and the relative abundance of animals with different feeding behaviors (e.g., Pelletier et al. 2010, Weisberg et al. 1997), can be used to evaluate ecosystem health. Because most benthic invertebrates are sedentary as adults, they function as integrators, over periods of months to years, of the properties of their environment.