Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2008
Keywords
benthic community structure, macrofauna, Oyster Bay, Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington Harbor, Northport Bay, Port Jefferson Harbor
Abstract
We combined high-resolution remote sensing techniques with detailed study of the physical and faunal characteristics at point locations in different seafloor environments within the Oyster Bay- Cold Spring Harbor Complex, the Huntington-Northport Bay Complex, and Port Jefferson Harbor, including Conscience Bay. High-resolution backscatter and bathymetric maps created by side scan and multibeam sonar surveys were used to classify the sea bed into provinces. Samples for macrofauna and sediment properties were collected within each province to provide "ground truth" for the acoustic maps. Oyster Bay, Huntington Harbor, and Port Jefferson Harbor were sampled at 40, 38, and 50 locations, respectively, with two replicate samples at each location. Samples were processed for organic content, grain-size, and fauna. Multivariate analysis was used to identify biotopes, i.e., areas of uniform sedimentary and faunal characteristics. Results indicated that acoustic mapping of the estuary floor provided a useful foundation from which to map benthic biotopes, that ground truth sampling will require a greater effort than that carried out in the present study in order to collect enough species to adequately characterize community structure, and that although most areas in the bays contained viable benthic communities, all three study areas showed some evidence of stress.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Cerrato, R.M. and L. Holt. 2008. North Shore Bays Benthic Mapping: Groundtruth Studies. Final Report to the NY Department of Environmental Conservation. MSRC Special Report # 135. School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University. 184 pp.
Comments
GIS data available in the SoMAS Research Data repository.