Ra. Reid et al., SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIATION IN LITTORAL-ZONE BENTHIC INVERTEBRATESFROM 3 SOUTH-CENTRAL ONTARIO LAKES, Canadian journal of fisheries and aquatic sciences, 52(7), 1995, pp. 1406-1420
Surveys of benthic invertebrates have revealed patterns attributed to
the impacts of acid deposition. Unfortunately, these patterns may be c
onfounded by temporal variation that will affect follow-up studies of
the recovery of these communities. Here, we assess spatial and tempora
l variation in time-limited, kick-and-sweep collections of littoral-zo
ne benthos. Spatial variation comprised five sites representing the pr
edominant nearshore substrates in each of three lakes. Temporal variat
ion spanned a different scale in each lake with five sites sampled: (i
) twice on the same day, (ii) once a week for 3 weeks, and (iii) four
times through the ice-free season. Variation was quantified using a mo
del II analysis of variance. Spatial differences predominated in same-
day samples (60.4% of the variation on average) and those collected ov
er a 3-week period (46.1%). In contrast, samples collected over the ic
e-free season revealed that spatial and temporal factors accounted for
9.4 and 25.6% of the variation. We conclude that our collections of l
ittoral macrobenthos are highly repeatable if sampling is restricted t
o short periods (e.g., 3 weeks). Surveys spanning longer periods may i
ncorporate considerable temporal variation from seasonal changes in ab
undance.