Rashleigh Brenda, Cyterski Mike, Smith Lisa M, Nestlerode Janet A
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 960 College Station Road, Athens, GA 30605, USA.
Environ Monit Assess. 2009 Mar;150(1-4):181-92. doi: 10.1007/s10661-008-0681-z. Epub 2008 Dec 13.
The Mobile Bay estuary in the northern Gulf of Mexico provides a rich habitat for many fish and shellfish, including those identified as economically and ecologically important. The National Estuary Program in Mobile Bay has focused on restoration of degraded estuarine habitat on which these species depend. To support this effort, we used statistical techniques of ordination, cluster analysis, and discriminant analysis to relate distributions of individual fish and shellfish species and species assemblages to two dozen water quality and habitat variables in a geo-referenced database. Species appeared to respond to dominant gradients of low to high salinity and upland to offshore habitat area; many of the 15 communities identified via cluster analysis showed aggregated spatial distributions that could be related to habitat characteristics. Species in the Mobile River Delta were distinct from those in other areas of the estuary. This analysis supports habitat management in the Mobile Bay estuary; however, due to mobility of organisms among sampling locations and the dynamic environmental conditions in estuaries, we conclude that the analyses presented here are most appropriate for an evaluation of the estuary as a whole.
墨西哥湾北部的莫比尔湾河口为许多鱼类和贝类提供了丰富的栖息地，包括那些具有经济和生态重要性的物种。莫比尔湾国家河口计划专注于恢复这些物种所依赖的退化河口栖息地。为支持这项工作，我们使用排序、聚类分析和判别分析等统计技术，将单个鱼类和贝类物种以及物种组合的分布与地理参考数据库中的二十多个水质和栖息地变量相关联。物种似乎对低盐度到高盐度以及从高地到近海栖息地面积的主导梯度做出反应；通过聚类分析确定的15个群落中的许多群落显示出聚集的空间分布，这可能与栖息地特征有关。莫比尔河三角洲的物种与河口其他区域的物种不同。该分析支持莫比尔湾河口的栖息地管理；然而，由于生物在采样地点之间的移动性以及河口动态的环境条件，我们得出结论，此处呈现的分析最适合对整个河口进行评估。
