Environmental drivers of biogeography and community structure in a Mid-Atlantic estuary

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Author(s)Oleynik, Haley A.
Author(s)Bizzarro, Joseph J.
Author(s)Hale, Edward A.
Author(s)Carlisle, Aaron B.
Date Accessioned2024-04-26T19:00:24Z
Date Available2024-04-26T19:00:24Z
Publication Date2024-02-14
DescriptionThis article was originally published in Oecologia. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05500-z. © The Author(s) 2024.
AbstractEstuaries include some of the most productive yet anthropogenically impacted marine ecosystems on the planet, and provide critical habitat to many ecologically and economically important marine species. In order to elucidate ecological function in estuaries, we must understand what factors drive community dynamics. Delaware Bay is the third largest estuary in the United States and hosts over 200 species of migrant and resident fishes and invertebrates. The Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife has conducted two long-term trawl surveys at monthly intervals in Delaware Bay since 1966. The two surveys collect data on environmental conditions, species composition, and number of fishes and macroinvertebrates across different size classes and life histories. Using a suite of multivariate approaches including hierarchical cluster analysis, canonical correlation analysis, and permutational multivariate analysis of variance, we characterized the fish and macroinvertebrate community in Delaware Bay and found that community composition and environmental conditions varied across spatial and seasonal scales. We identified four distinct biogeographic regions, based on environmental conditions and community composition, which were consistent across surveys. We found that the community was driven primarily by gradients in temperature and salinity and that abundant, frequently occurring species in the Bay have well-defined environmental associations. Our work represents the first attempt to use an existing historical survey to better understand how environmental parameters influence diversity and distribution of macrofauna within Delaware Bay, providing insight into how abiotic variables, influenced by climate, may impact the Delaware Bay ecosystem and similar estuarine ecosystems worldwide.
CitationOleynik, H.A., Bizzarro, J.J., Hale, E.A. et al. Environmental drivers of biogeography and community structure in a Mid-Atlantic estuary. Oecologia 204, 543–557 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05500-z
ISSN1432-1939
URLhttps://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/34318
Languageen_US
PublisherOecologia
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywordsfish ecology
Keywordsspecies diversity
Keywordsspecies richness
Keywordsenvironmental drivers
Keywordscommunity ecology
TitleEnvironmental drivers of biogeography and community structure in a Mid-Atlantic estuary
TypeArticle
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