HR: 09:15h
AN: NB41A-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Diatom Assessment of Wetland Condition at Genus, Species, and Subspecies Taxonomic Resolution
AU: * Lane, C R
EM: Lane.Charles@EPA.GOV
AF: H.T. Odum Center for Wetlands, University of Florida Phelps Lab PO Box 116350, Gainesville, FL 32611 United States
AU: * Lane, C R
EM: Lane.Charles@EPA.GOV
AF: US EPA Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory, 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr. MS 642, Cincinnati, OH 45268 United States
AB: This study was conducted to determine if epiphyton-based metrics could be developed using mean autecological values at genus, species, and subspecies taxonomic levels. Epiphytic diatoms from 69 isolated depressional marshes in peninsular Florida were sampled once in either the summers of 1999 or 2000. Soil and water parameters were also sampled. Thirty genera, 148 species, and 26 subspecies were identified. The proportional matrices at each taxonomic level were highly similar. Autecological metrics, based on weighted averages, were developed for pH class, salinity tolerance, N uptake metabolism, oxygen requirements, saprobity level, trophic status, moisture requirement, and pollution tolerance at each taxonomic level. Two additional metrics based on indicator species analysis were also developed. Wetland condition, as determined by summed metric values, was strongly correlated across taxonomic level, and no difference was found when sites were placed into categorical bins based on quartile scoring for each taxonomic level. Specific conductance, soil pH, soil and water total phosphorous, and total Kjeldahl nitrogen were significantly related to site ordination scores at each taxonomic level. This study concludes that indices of biotic integrity, when developed using autecological indices, provide similar qualitative conditional information across taxonomic levels.
DE: 1890 Wetlands
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly