Evaluating structure and functions of benthic coastal habitats in Churchill, Manitoba
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biodiversity, Ecology, Marine Biology
- Keywords
- Habitat classification, functional traits, coastal habitats, Arctic, benthos
- Copyright
- © 2018 Cypihot et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Evaluating structure and functions of benthic coastal habitats in Churchill, Manitoba. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26753v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26753v1
Abstract
Coastal habitats provide unique conditions allowing a specific diversity of species to establish. However, in the Canadian Arctic, it may experience a growing number of impacts such as oil spills and aquatic invasive species. Effective, low-cost sampling methods are then required to obtain baseline data on Arctic species. In this context, the eSPACE project developed a classification of habitats by videography using substrate and geomorphology. To verify the relationships between this habitat classification and the biological and functional composition, coastal benthic communities and associated habitats were characterized in Churchill, Manitoba. Differences between biological composition and functional traits of each habitat were found which allow for direct information on the relative biological importance of sampled habitats and help validate the classification of habitats.
Author Comment
This is an abstract which has been accepted for the WCMB