Charlotte Harbor Benthic Biodiversity

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Charlotte Harbor Benthic Biodiversity
Jim Culter Jay Leverone
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Objectives

• Define, Compare and Contrast the Benthic
  Macroinfauna for the CHNEP Drainage Basins (10)
• As Stratified within 8 Habitat Types
• Sample All Areas Within Dry Season - MAY

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10 Defined Drainage Basins

• Coastal Venice
• Lemon Bay
• Tidal Caloosahatchee River
• Tidal Myakka River
• Tidal Peace River
• Charlotte Harbor proper
• Matlacha Pass
• Pine Island Sound
• San Carlos Bay
• Estero Bay

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8 Defined Habitats

• Mangrove
• Inter-tidal sand bar
• Submerged sand bar
• Inter-tidal mud flats
• Submerged mud flats
• Saltwater marsh
• Oyster and
• Submerged aquatic vegetation habitats SAV

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Methods - Field

• Locate Habitats in Each Basin
• Sample with Cores and Sweep Net
• Three Samples from Each Site
• Separate Fauna with a 0.5mm Sieve
• Preserve Samples with 10 Formalin
• Georeference each Sampling Site
• Measure Record Water Parameters
• Collect Sediment for Grain Size Analysis

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Laboratory Methods

• Sort Samples to Major Faunal Groups
• Identify Fauna to LPTL
• Laser Grain Size Analysis
• Faunal Counts Database
• Grain Size Parameters Database
• Field Water Parameters Database
• Georeference Positions Database

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Field
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Salt Marsh
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Mangrove
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Drift algae
Sieving samples to remove fine sediment lt0.5mm
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Sampling focused on natural habitats
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Natural undisturbed habitats
As opposed to.
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Disturbed or altered habitat
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Laboratory
Pan sorting to separate animals from sediment
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Identification and counting of fauna
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Results Mapping Products -Images
Satellite Views of Basins
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Results Mapping Products
Basin Maps From CHNEP
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Results Mapping Products
Basin Maps Sample Locator Maps
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Results Report
Habitat Descriptions Contain reference links
such as Wikipedia
Mangrove Habitat Mangrove trees grow in the
intertidal to supratidal zones and are tropical
to sub-tropical in distribution. Mangroves are
terrestrial plants that have adapted to soils
periodically inundated by tides. Plants that
naturally occupy salty soils are known as
halophytes. They are limited in their northern
distribution by temperature. There are
approximately fifty different species of
mangroves worldwide belonging to several
different plant families. Only four true
mangrove species occur in America, with three
species occurring in Florida and within Charlotte
Harbor. These species are the Rhizophera mangle
(red mangrove), and Avicennia germinans (black
mangrove) and Laguncularia racemosa (white
mangrove).
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Habitat Descriptions Example of a report field
image
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Habitat Descriptions Example of a report field
image
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Data sets numbers of organisms /m2
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Data Sets Geo Referenced
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Mean Temperature All Habitats each Basin
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Mean Salinity All Habitats each Basin
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Dissolved Oxygen All Habitats each Basin
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Sediment Grain Size Distribution
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Sediment Grain Size Distribution
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Sediment Grain Size Distribution
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Species Richness Taxa by Basin all Habitats
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Species Richness Taxa by Habitat all Basins
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Mud versus Sand Intertidal of Taxa
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Mud versus Sand Intertidal Abundance
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Mud versus Sand Subtidal of Taxa
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Mud versus Sand Subtidal Abundance
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Number of Taxa
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Abundance in Mangroves
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Abundance in Oyster Habitat
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Abundance in SAV Habitat
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Shannon-Wiener Diversity H High red Low blue
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Summary

• 65 basin-habitat combinations near synoptic
  sampling
• 195 core samples and 195 sweep net samples
• 370 invertebrate taxa from gt 44,000 organisms
• 8 taxa accounted for more than 50 of organisms
• 61 taxa accounted for 90 of organisms
• 5 most numerically abundant species from each
  habitat and basin accounted for slightly more
  than 79 of the total individuals collected

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Summary cont.

• High - lows
• 79 taxa at the San Carlos Bay subtidal sand site
• 7 taxa at the Estero Bay marsh habitat
• Average of species 28, median 24
• Basins with the highest salinity had the greatest
  species diversity

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Summary cont.

• Greatest number of species averages
• Subtidal mud (39) and sand habitats (38)
• SAV habitat
• Oyster habitat
• Mangroves
• Intertidal mud
• Intertidal sand
• Salt marsh

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Summary cont.

• Lemon Bay - Most diverse basin 160 taxa
• San Carlos Bay most productive basin
• average 130,000 organisms/m2

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Summary cont.

• No Great Surprise
• Upper Estuary has greatest abundance, lowest
  diversity
• Lower Estuary has lower abundance, highest
  diversity
• Benthos is one of the principal agents of energy
  transfer from primary production to fisheries
  stocks

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Representative Images
Common Invertebrates Mollusca - Bivalves
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Common Invertebrates Mollusca - Chiton
Mollusca Gastropod
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Common Invertebrates Mollusca Gastropod
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Common Invertebrates Polychaete
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Common Invertebrates Polychaete
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Common Invertebrates Polychaete - Jaws
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Crustacea -Amphipod
Caprellid Amphipod
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Crustacea - Amphipod
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Common Invertebrates Crustacea - Cumacean
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Results Representative Images
Common Invertebrates Echinoderm - Brittlestar
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