Comparisons between Marine Communities Residing on Sandshoals and Uniform-Bottom Substrates in the Mid-Atlantic Bight: Final Report
Slacum HW, Burton WH, Vølstad J, Dew J, Weber E, Llansó R, Wong D. 2006. Comparisons between Marine Communities Residing on Sandshoals and Uniform-Bottom Substrates in the Mid-Atlantic Bight: Final Report. OCS Study MMS 2005-042. Versar, Inc. Columbia, Maryland
The study was located on the inner continental shelf of the MAB region off the coast of Maryland and Delaware. The primary focus was the four sand shoals and four reference sites.The shoal and reference areas were located between 16 and 25 km off the coast and encompass approximately 800 square km of the inner shelf. The main objectives of this study were to, 1) determine what species of fish and mobile benthos reside at offshore sand shoals, and 2) evaluate if the shoals represent important habitat for those species. The focus of this study was to compare the four sand shoals to four reference habitats located in the same region that exhibited similar macro and microhabitat features, but did not exhibit vertical relief like the shoals. In this region of the MAB, shoals and uniform-bottom (lacking extreme vertical relief) habitats are the dominant megafeature. For comparison, four uniform-bottom habitats were chosen as there ference sites. To evaluate if shoals are important habitat, we compared species abundances and diversity between the four shoals and four reference habitats. Species abundance and diversity were used as determinants of habitat quality and we defined an area to be “preferred” if total species or communities occur at greater abundances and higher diversities within that area.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Slacum, H; Burton, William; Vølstad, Jon; Dew, Jodi; Weber, Ed; Llansó, Roberto; Wong, David
- Date of Issue
- 2006-03
- Publisher
- Versar, Inc
- Units
- ASIS
- Keywords
- Coastal, Erosion, Marine, SAND, Shoals, Soil