Hi fellow estuarine ecologists,
Good to see that Marin has taken this initiative. My name is Phil Smith and
I have a small consultancy (AEC) specialising in ecological surveys and
Environmental Impact Assessments of developments that have a watery theme
(reservoirs, ports, harbours, offshore oil & gas etc). My background is a
combination of chemistry and benthic invertebrate ecology, but my interests
are very broad these days.
I have a suggested topic for discussion, but it may only be of interest to
other benthic ecologists:
Why should it take several months to produce data from a subtidal benthic
survey? This is too long for management purposes or for EIAs. I suggest
that we need a radical rethink about our approach to such surveys. In my
view we process far too much material with standard Day grabs. Much of the
information could be obtained by combining results from subsamples of the
surface layer (which contains the majority of specimens, particularly small
numerous ones) with the results from sieving the entire sample through a
much coarser mesh (2 mm?).
Although there will be many benthic ecologists who will see this as a poor
alternative to sieving the entire sample through a 0.5 mm mesh, it would
produce significant time savings. The saved time could be used to:
Get the results to the client more quickly, or
Sample more sites, or
Sample the same sites more frequently.
Any comments? Has anyone tried a similar approach?
Season's greetings to you all.
Phil
Dr Phil Smith
AEC, The Limes, Creedy Park, Crediton, Devon, EX17 4EB, UK
Tel +44 1363 776456 fax 774656 e-mail [log in to unmask]
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