Changes in benthic communities along a presumed pollution gradient in Vancouver Harbour

Samples of macrobenthic organisms were obtained at seven stations on a presumed pollution gradient from the head of Vancouver Harbour through to outer Howe Sound. Polychaetes (83 apparent species) and molluscs (43 apparent species) were the most abundant faunal groups numerically (44.8 and 47.9%, respectively). Molluscs accounted for most of the biomass (87.9%). The following univariate and multivariate methods were used to investigate structural changes in the benthic communities: ANOVA, Abundance–Biomass Comparisons and related statistics, cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling, and the BIOENV procedure. Most of the analyses divided the seven stations into three groups: Port Moody Arm (Inner Harbour): two stations; Inner and Outer Harbour: four stations, and Gibsons (Howe Sound): one station. Further cause–effect investigations are needed to determine the sensitivity to organic pollution of indicator species identified in the survey. However our data correlating benthic community changes to sediment chemistry suggest the inner harbour was dominated by pollution-tolerant species. Depth and sediment grain size were confounding factors for the interpretations.

Simple

Date (Publication)
2003
Cited responsible party
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

DFO

Colin Levings

 		Principal investigator

Ecosystem and Environment Research Laboratory

J.G. Je

 		Principal investigator

Department of Oceanography and Marine Ecology, Far Eastern Regional Hydrometeorological Research Institute

T. Belan

 		Principal investigator

Ecosystem and Environment Research Laboratory, Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute

B.J. Koo

 		Principal investigator
Presentation form
Digital document
Other citation details

0141-1136/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/S0141-1136(03)00064-3

Marine Environmental Research 57 (2003) 121–135
Purpose

In this paper, we report results of a collaborative benthic sampling and analysis program carried out during the PICESWorksho p to examine benthic habitats in Vancouver Harbour along a presumed pollution gradient and into the Strait of Georgia. The primary objective of the project was to share expertise and approaches among the various investigators. results were also used to compare pollution assessment methods based on measurements at various levels in the ecosystem (e.g., cellular vs. individual organism vs. community responses)
Status
Completed
Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned

Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords v15.9

  • Earth Science > Biosphere > Aquatic Ecosystems > Benthic Habitat

Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus

  • Analysis

  • Pollution

DFO Areas

  • North Pacific Ocean > Fraser River and BC Interior

  • North Pacific Ocean > South Inner Coast(Johnstone Strait, Strait of Georgia, Juan de Fuca, inlets and passages)

DFO Areas

  • North Pacific Ocean > Fraser River and BC Interior

  • North Pacific Ocean > South Inner Coast(Johnstone Strait, Strait of Georgia, Juan de Fuca, inlets and passages)
Language

English
Character set
UTF8
Topic category
  • Oceans
Environment description

18 KB
Description

From the head of Vancouver Harbour through to outer Howe Sound
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Begin
1990
End
2003
Distribution format
Name Version

electronic

none
Distributor contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Pacific Salmon Foundation

Isobel Pearsall

pearsalli@shaw.ca

Distributor
OnLine resource
Protocol Linkage Name

WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link

 		https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/data-donnees/index-eng.html

DFO Science website

WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download

 		https://soggy2.zoology.ubc.ca/geonetwork/srv/api/records/88fc392b-eba4-40c5-a53c-d9f066ca6c9f/attachments/88fc392b-eba4-40c5-a53c-d9f066ca6c9f.pdf 88fc392b-eba4-40c5-a53c-d9f066ca6c9f.pdf

WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download

 		https://soggy2.zoology.ubc.ca/geonetwork/srv/api/records/88fc392b-eba4-40c5-a53c-d9f066ca6c9f/attachments/88fc392b-eba4-40c5-a53c-d9f066ca6c9f.xlsx 88fc392b-eba4-40c5-a53c-d9f066ca6c9f.xlsx
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Statement

Levings produced paper copy. Fraser scanned with Fujitsu Scansnap s1500 (ABBY Finereader OCR software). Data was extracted through Adobe Reader conversion and manual entry into MS Excel.

Metadata

File identifier
88fc392b-eba4-40c5-a53c-d9f066ca6c9f XML
Metadata language

eng
Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Date stamp
2023-12-19T00:18:28.772Z
Metadata standard name

North American Profile of ISO19115:2003 - Geographic information - Metadata
Metadata standard version

NAP - CAN/CGSB-171.100-2009
Metadata author
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

Pacific Salmon Foundation

Sarah Fraser

fraser.sarahk@gmail.com

Author
Other language
Language Character encoding
French UTF8
English UTF8
 
 

Overviews

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Spatial extent

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W
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Keywords

Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords v15.9
Earth Science > Biosphere > Aquatic Ecosystems > Benthic Habitat
Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus
Analysis Pollution

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