Abstract
Methods are compiled and developed for the analysis of community structure in the deep-sea benthos. These methods are tailored to the conditions of high species diversity and low standing crop. A new modification of the 0.25-m2 box corer is described. Fisher's index of dispersion is adapted by using each species as a replicate. When the resultant summary statistic is partitioned in the illustrated manner, it is possible to determine whether species indeed behave as homegeneous replicates of a single dispersion pattern, or, alternatively, whether habitat partitioning is indicated. Species are also used as replicates in a modification of Pielou's “joins” technique of determining whether high-density and low-density areas of given species are randomly mingled. An indirect analytical approach is developed which proposes that, if an environmental grain of relatively small dimensions has been important in structuring the community, species which have smaller ambits will be more diverse than species having larger ambits.
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Communicated by O. Kinne, Hamburg
This paper is largely derived from a portion of a dissertation submitted to Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California at San Diego in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree
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Jumars, P.A. Methods for measurement of community structure in deep-sea macrobenthos. Marine Biology 30, 245–252 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00390747
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00390747