Shrnutí

Popis

This study examined temporal and spatial variability in shallow, soft bottom macrofauna communities in Mamala Bay, Oahu, Hawaii. Both short term (weekly) and long term (monthly) temporal changes were examined. Specifically, there were three objectives of this study. The first objective was to determine if temporal variability (lunar periodicity and seasonality) exists in community structure and biomass of Hawaiian soft bottom benthos. The second objective was to examine the temporal nature of the benthic response to freshwater runoff events. The third objective was to examine the spatial nature of the benthic infauna response to freshwater runoff. Temporal variability, both on short-term (within a month), and long-term (between months) time scales, was found to exist in the shallow water (10m) macrofauna communities of Oahu's south shore. The timing and magnitude of the variation was dependent upon the particular station examined. There was evidence for the existence of seasonality and lunar periodicity in certain taxa. Examination of the results of the rain event sampling combined with the results of spatial comparisons of stations along a transect leading away from Ala Wai Canal suggests that runoff from the Ala Wai is not important with respect to density of Total Macrofauna and Total Macrofauna biomass. K-dominance curves, combined with the results of Abundance Biomass Curves do not show a pattern indicating that stations located near the mouth of the Ala Wai Canal are negatively impacted by proximity to runoff. However, the results of the abundance biomass curves were not conclusive and further work needs to be done to determine if this technique would be useful in Hawaiian benthic communities to detect human-induced and natural perturbations.