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Aggregation of sublittoral macrobenthos in Moreton Bay, Queensland
Author(s) -
STEPHENSON W.,
COOK S. D.
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.tb01157.x
Subject(s) - macrobenthos , bay , benthos , statistics , mathematics , ecology , environmental science , oceanography , biomass (ecology) , biology , geology , benthic zone
Quintuplicate samples of macrobenthos were collected by an 0.1 m 2 Smith‐McIntyre grab from six selected sites in Moreton Bay at 8‐week intervals on twelve occasions. This is part of a continuing study of time changes in the benthos. The present paper deals with the‘withinfives’data, mostly on a species basis. We show that there is, for most species, a close power curve relationship between variances (withinfives) and means (of fives): here v = am where V is variance, m is mean, and a and b are constants. Following Taylor's (1961, 1971) initial interpretations b is a measure of aggregation, although a values also have interpretive importance. Of eight‐seven species studied there is a spectrum from highly aggregated (c. 65% of total) to random (c. 25%) to spaced (c. l0%). There is a comparable spectrum of transformations to produce variance stabilizing in the data. Power curve fitting also applies to total site populations (n) where b is 1.977 and data require log transformation, and to species densities (s) where b is 1.342 and data require cube‐root transformation. The data are not entirely suitable for investigating the topographic scale of patchiness of species within the 20 m‘within‐fives’traverses. A predominant patch width of 30 m or more was revealed.