|  Project
summary:
Many natural
areas within the coastal zone are experiencing intense
pressure from increasing urbanization and recreational
use, as well as catastrophic events (coastal storms,
oil spills) and long term changes from global warming
and sea level rise. In the development of a Long-term
Coastal Ecosystem Monitoring Program, Cape Cod National
Seashore (CACO) has been selected as a prototype monitoring
location for the Atlantic and Gulf Coast biogeographic
region. Within CACO there are easily accessible shallow-water
areas with different tide and salinity ranges, sediment
types, and degree of wave protection.
 The
project began with an inventory phase consisting of
a literature review of existing data on benthic communities
in protected waters of the outer Cape and a series of
small scale biologic surveys of selected study sites
throughout CACO (Hatches Harbor restoration area, Pilgrim
Lake restoration area, Pamet River, Herring River diked
area, Wellfleet Harbor and Nauset Marsh sub-areas, Salt
Pond, Town Cove and Mill Pond). These surveys were completed
during the summer of 2003. One hundred and thirty 40cm2
cores were obtained in the inventory phase.
More information
is available on Pilgrim Lake (now called East Harbor)
than on the other inventory sites. Seawater exchange
was restored to this diked area in November 2002. Inventory
samples were taken in the site during November 2002,
May 2003, and November 2003. Summer support for a URI
undergraduate Coastal Fellow was provided in 2003 to
carry out intensive sampling of benthic invertebrates
and related variables in East Harbor.
 The
project is now in a “parameter sampling”
phase. This entails intensive sampling of macrofauna
at three locations as a basis for specifying number
of replicates, core depth, and sieve mesh size for design
of an efficient monitoring plan. Locations (Hatches
Harbor, Wellfleet Bay and Nauset Bay) and procedures
were based on the results of the initial surveys. At
each site, 20-30 40cm2 core samples and 3-8 0.25m2 quadrat
samples were obtained. The elevations of the sampling
stations were measured with a tripod-mounted level and
referred to shore-features. At each station, samples
were taken for analysis of sediment grain size and organic
content. After preservation, all core samples will be
divided into fractions >1.0 mm and 1.0-0.5mm and
organisms will be removed and counted separately. Standard
sample depth is 15 cm. At each site the vertical distribution
of organisms will be determined in 5-10 20 cm cores
divided into 5cm slices.
Historical
data and “inventory sampling” data will
be used to prepare a description of major faunal assemblages
within the park. At most sites data will be adequate
to identify dominant species, indicator species, resource
species, total abundance of individuals and species
richness. This data will be compared with historical
data by employing univariate statistics and in graphical
products.
In analysis
of “parameter sample” data, use will be
made of multivariate techniques using “PRIMER”
software. One-way analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) will
be used to test for significant differences between
habitats, sampling sites within habitats, water bodies,
tidal elevation, and sampling dates. Clarke and Warwick
found that a random subset of the total number of species
in a collection could give a result similar to that
obtained from the full collection. ANOSIM will be used
to examine the effect of number of samples, number of
individuals per sample, sieve size, and level of taxonomic
identification on detection of differences between collections
with the goal of reducing the time and expense required
for monitoring. |
