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Relating spatial scale to patterns of polychaete species diversity in coastal estuaries of the western United States

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Abstract

Historically, studies in landscape ecology have investigated how variation in spatial scale can affect the complex interactions observed in an ecosystem. In this study I describe survey data collected as part of the United States National Coastal Assessment that were used to discern the role sampling scale can play in detecting the relationship between physical factors and patterns of polychaete species diversity in marine estuaries. In this survey, sampling sites were randomly selected at three spatial scales using a probability based site selection algorithm applied to a GIS representation of all U.S. west coast estuaries. At each sampling scale, data relating to species diversity and environmental condition were collected. My analyses revealed that polychaetes displayed an increase in diversity towards the equator. It appears that across latitude both the rate of increase in and total diversity were affected by variation in the spatial scale over which the survey was conducted. Variation in scale also affected interpretations of the magnitude to which physical factors may potentially relate to species diversity across latitude. The data suggested that increased sampling scales obscured negative relationships between physical factors and species diversity across the estuaries sampled in this study. The results of this study demonstrate how assessments of the strength of the relationship between physical factors and species diversity in coastal communities can be strongly affected by variation in sampling scale.

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Acknowledgments

This manuscript benefited from comments provided by R. Desharnais, V. Engle, J. Harvey and W. Nelson. Two anonymous reviewers provided comments on the manuscript. Data were compiled and provided by L. Harwell of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.

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  1. Corey Garza

    Present address: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 212 Rogers Avenue, Milford, CT, 06460, USA

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  1. Center for Environmental Analysis, Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, USA

    Corey Garza

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Garza, C. Relating spatial scale to patterns of polychaete species diversity in coastal estuaries of the western United States. Landscape Ecol 23 (Suppl 1), 107–121 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-007-9142-2

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