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Microvariation in the fauna of a sublittoral sand bank, Moreton Bay, Queensland
Author(s) -
POINER I. R.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
australian journal of ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1442-9993
pISSN - 0307-692X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-9993.1977.tb01146.x
Subject(s) - species richness , bay , species evenness , benthic zone , sampling (signal processing) , fauna , ecology , species diversity , global biodiversity , abiotic component , geography , biodiversity , environmental science , oceanography , biology , geology , filter (signal processing) , computer science , computer vision
Benthic macrofauna was sampled from Naval Reserve Bank, Moreton Bay, Queensland, using an 0.05 m 2 van Veen grab, and data were used to investigate spatial micropatterning. Samples were taken within a 5 × 6 square sampling grid (total area 730 in2) with an intersampling distance of 6 m. Samples were taken in duplicate on each occasion at 2‐inonth intervals. Particle size of sediments and depth data were also collected. Data on other abiotic factors such as temperature, salinity and currents were inferred. Sampling gave data for 131 species. Hierarchical numerical classificatory techniques were employed to obtain (a) spatial patterns (site‐groups) based on biotic data, and (b) species‐groups which characterize the above site groups. Species diversity (SH) species richness (S), species evenness (J’) and individual species diversity (I) indices were computed for the total data set for each site with the species summated over the sampling times. A selected number of species were used in the classification. The spatial patterns were well defined but the species‐groups categorizing them were somewhat confused. Species diversity indices were found to be of little aid in the interpretation of the site patterns or in generating alternative hypotheses.