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Abstract
A new regional dataset comprising 425 intertidal diatom taxa from 175 samples from 11 ecologically diverse Oregon and Washington estuaries illustrates the importance of compiling a large modern dataset from a range of sites. Cluster analyses and detrended correspondence analysis of the diatom assemblages identify distinct vertical zones within supratidal, intertidal and subtidal environments at six of the 11 study sites, but the abundance of some of the most common species varies widely among and within sites. Canonical correspondence analysis of the regional dataset shows relationships between diatom species and tidal exposure, salinity and substratum (grain size and organic content). Correspondence analyses of local datasets show higher values of explained variation than the analysis of the combined regional dataset. Our results emphasize that studies of the autecology of diatom species require many samples from a range of modern environments to adequately characterize species–environment relationships.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by National Science Foundation award (EAR 0842728, 1419824 and 1419846), the Earthquake Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey, the Society of Sedimentary Geology (SEPM – Sanders Student Research Fund), and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research Abroad). We thank Rob Witter, Simon Engelhart, Brian Atwater and Emily Smith for assistance with fieldwork. Roger Lewis and Linda Gerson collected and surveyed elevations for the samples from Alsea Bay under the guidance of Eileen Hemphill-Haley. Eileen Hemphill-Haley and anonymous reviewers provided thorough, constructive comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Supplemental data
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0269249X.2015.1126359