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Landscape structure and land use affect estuarine benthic invertebrates in the Virginian Biogeographic Province, USA

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Abstract

Estuaries are dynamic transition zones linking freshwater and oceanic habitats. These productive ecosystems are threatened by a variety of stressors including human modification of coastal watersheds. In this study, we examined potential linkages between estuarine condition and the watershed using multimodel inference. We examined attributes at the watershed scale as well as those associated with riparian areas but found that they were highly correlated. We also examined whether attributes closer to the estuary were more strongly related to benthic invertebrate condition and found that this was not generally true. In contrast, variability within the estuary strongly impacted model results and suggests that future modeling should incorporate estuarine variability or focus on the individual stations within the estuary. Modeling estuarine condition indicated that inherent landscape structure (e.g., estuarine area, watershed area, watershed:estuary ratio) is important to predicting benthic invertebrate condition and needs to be considered in the context of watershed/ estuary planning and restoration.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the EMAP field crews and IT staff for providing the data used in this study, Mike Charpentier for map production, Nina Bonnelycke for helpful advice on the USDA Agricultural Survey, Alisa Morrison for helpful conversations, and Jim Latimer, Hal Walker, and Jonathan Serbst for their technical reviews.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Any mention of trade names, products, or services does not imply an endorsement by the U.S. Government or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA does not endorse any commercial products, services, or enterprises. This is STICS ORD-027080.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory, Atlantic Ecology Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Narragansett, RI, 02882, USA

    Marguerite C. Pelletier & Jane Copeland

  2. Department of Natural Resources Science, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, 02881, USA

    Arthur J. Gold & Peter V. August

  3. Department of Computer Science and Statistics, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, 02881, USA

    Liliana Gonzalez

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  1. Marguerite C. Pelletier
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  2. Arthur J. Gold
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  4. Liliana Gonzalez
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Correspondence to Marguerite C. Pelletier.

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Pelletier, M.C., Gold, A.J., Copeland, J. et al. Landscape structure and land use affect estuarine benthic invertebrates in the Virginian Biogeographic Province, USA. Environ Monit Assess 191, 252 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-019-7401-8

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