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Patterns in biodiversity and distribution of benthic Polychaeta in the Mississippi Canyon, Northern Gulf of Mexico
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Wang, Yuning |
| Copyright Year | 2006 |
| Abstract | Patterns in Biodiversity and Distribution of Benthic Polychaeta in the Mississippi Canyon, Northern Gulf of Mexico. (December 2004) Yuning Wang, B.S., Ocean University of China (China) M.S., First Institute of Oceanography (China) Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Gilbert T. Rowe The distribution of benthic polychaetes in the Mississippi Canyon was examined to evaluate impacts of environmental variables on species assemblages. Environmental variables considered included depth, bathymetric slope, hydrographic features, sediment grain size, food availability and sediment contamination. Samples were collected using GOMEX boxcorer. Density decreased with increasing depth exponentially. Diversity exhibited a unimodal pattern with depth with a maximum value in the intermediate depth range (about 1269 m). Deposit feeders were the most abundant feeding guild. Both the feeding guilds and faunal composition could be divided into three groups along the depth gradient: shallow (300 – 800 m), intermediate (800 – 1500 m) and deep (> 1500 m). Results of statistical analyses revealed that depth was the most important determinant in organizing polychaete assemblages in the study area. The Mississippi Canyon and the Central Transect (a non-canyon area) were found not contaminated by trace metals or Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/3058/etd-tamu-2004C-OCNG-Wang.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
