TY - JOUR
T1 - Ecology and assessment of the benthic diatom communities of four Lake Erie estuaries using Lange-Bertalot tolerance values
AU - Sgro, Gerald V.
AU - Ketterer, Michael E.
AU - Johansen, Jeffrey R.
N1 - Funding Information:
Collection of samples, microscopy, and initial data analysis were funded by a grant from the Lake Erie Protection Fund. Manuscript preparation and publication costs were covered by a grant from the Committee on Research and Faculty Development, John Carroll University. The Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve assisted in water chemistry analysis. Further data analysis was supported by a United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grant through the University of Minnesota Natural Recourses Research Institute’s Great Lakes Environmental Indicator Project. Although the research described in this article has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s STAR program through cooperative agreement R-8286750 to the University of Minnesota, it has not been subjected to the agency’s required peer and policy review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.
PY - 2006/5
Y1 - 2006/5
N2 - Diatom composition of four Lake Erie estuaries was related to seasonal factors, year, location within the estuaries, and water quality parameters including nutrient and metals concentrations. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) revealed seasonality as the most important factor determining variability in diatom species composition among sites and dates. Alkalinity, pH, silicate, orthophosphate, and nitrite concentrations were water chemistry parameters correlated with diatom community composition. Eigenvalues for the first two CCA axes of nutrient/physical data and species data were higher than the first two CCA axes of metals data and species data. In addition, the water quality of these estuaries was evaluated using an index composed of Lange-Bertalot pollution tolerance values. The Lange-Bertalot index scores indicated that the Ashtabula estuary had the best water quality of the study sites. Lange-Bertalot index scores were highly correlated with a gradient of disturbance represented by the first axis of a principle components analysis of sites and nutrient data (Spearman ρ = 0.7). The Lange-Bertalot tolerance values could be useful for discriminating 'good' sites from "bad" sites among the Lake Erie estuaries.
AB - Diatom composition of four Lake Erie estuaries was related to seasonal factors, year, location within the estuaries, and water quality parameters including nutrient and metals concentrations. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) revealed seasonality as the most important factor determining variability in diatom species composition among sites and dates. Alkalinity, pH, silicate, orthophosphate, and nitrite concentrations were water chemistry parameters correlated with diatom community composition. Eigenvalues for the first two CCA axes of nutrient/physical data and species data were higher than the first two CCA axes of metals data and species data. In addition, the water quality of these estuaries was evaluated using an index composed of Lange-Bertalot pollution tolerance values. The Lange-Bertalot index scores indicated that the Ashtabula estuary had the best water quality of the study sites. Lange-Bertalot index scores were highly correlated with a gradient of disturbance represented by the first axis of a principle components analysis of sites and nutrient data (Spearman ρ = 0.7). The Lange-Bertalot tolerance values could be useful for discriminating 'good' sites from "bad" sites among the Lake Erie estuaries.
KW - Biomonitoring
KW - Diatoms
KW - Estuary
KW - Lake Erie
KW - Lange-Bertalot Index
KW - Water quality
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U2 - 10.1007/s10750-005-1617-z
DO - 10.1007/s10750-005-1617-z
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33645334457
SN - 0018-8158
VL - 561
SP - 239
EP - 249
JO - Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Health
JF - Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Health
IS - 1
ER -