Intertidal monitoring in the North Coast and Cascades Network: Sand beach monitoring 2011 annual report
Fradkin SC. 2014. Intertidal monitoring in the North Coast and Cascades Network: Sand beach monitoring 2011 annual report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/NCCN/NRDS—2014/632. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Sand beach monitoring is one component of the North Coast and Cascades Network Intertidal Monitoring Protocol. This monitoring component focuses on the community structure of infaunal marine invertebrates and the physical structure of 7 sand beaches within Olympic National Park. Sand beach infauna is closely linked to its physical habitat. Sand beaches are a major habitat type in Olympic National Park, making up approximately 30% of the intertidal zone. These beaches play an important role in both nutrient cycling and food web dynamics in the nearshore ocean. This report presents data from the 2011 monitoring field season. Three shore-normal transects were sampled at each beach. Sampling included infaunal organism abundance, beach sediment composition, and beach elevation profiles. Sediments for most beaches were characterized as well sorted, fine sand beaches with shallow slopes. The exception was Toleak beach, which had moderately sorted, medium sand. These physical differences translated to infaunal community structure differences. A total of 8 taxa were found on the Olympic beaches. All beaches, except Toleak, had similar community structure with an average of 5.6 taxa. The Toleak infauna was significantly different and was substantially depauperate relative to the other beaches, with only 2.3 taxa. In particular, Toleak lacked most species of amphipods, a group that plays an important role in sand beach energy transfer, and all polychaete worms. These results, conjunction with similar results from the 2010 field season suggest that the physical and biological structure of Toleak is significantly different from the other OLYM sand beaches being monitored and is not appropriate for inclusion in this monitoring program. After the 2011 field season, Toleak will cease to be monitored.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Fradkin, Steven
- Date of Issue
- 2014-03
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NRSS , OLYM
- Keywords
- Abundance, analysis of similarity, ANOSIM, Beach, Bray-Curtis similarity, Cedar Creek Beach, Community, elevation profile, Habitat, infaunal, infaunal organism, Intertidal, Intertidal Monitoring, Kalaloch Beach, marine invertebrate, Monitoring, Olympic National Park, Ruby Beach, SAND, Sand Point Beach, Second Beach, Sediment, Shi Shi Beach, Structure, taxonomic distinctness, TAXTDEST, Toleak Beach, Transect
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Intertidal Communities