Analyses of benthic sampling efforts between the 1950s and around 1980 show a gradient of increasing benthic species abundance and diversity from the Providence River estuary to Conimicut Point, likely due to the decreasing gradient of organic loadings, sewage effluent, incidences of hypoxia and anoxia, and phytoplankton blooms (Frithsen 1990). South of Conimicut Point, there was little spatial variation in benthic species abundance and diversity within this same time period; this pattern was attributed to lower exposure to stressors (Frithsen 1990). More recent efforts to monitor benthic biotopes are summarized in Table 1. Each survey has spatial and/or temporal limitations, and only a few can provide a consistent trend assessment over more than 10 years. Table 1. Recent efforts to monitor benthic habitat and/or community composition in Narragansett Bay. Benthic monitoring Organizing Spatial extent Temporal Future strategy group extent sampling Benthic macrofauna Marine 4 stations in 4 stations 2000, None planned community composition Ecosystems Upper Bay 2001, 2002, 2004; and abundance Research 1 station Laboratory, 2010 URI-GSO Trends report EPA Upper Bay Trends analysis None planned of data 2015 National Coastal EPA Bay wide (some Summer 2005/6, 2020 Condition Report stations 2010, permanent, others changing) Benthic video sled Narragansett 3 transects in Monthly, Monthly Bay Providence River present Commission estuary Sediment profile imagery URI Bay wide 1988, 2008 None planned The benthic macrofauna monitoring efforts by the Marine Ecosystems Research Laboratory at the University of Rhode Island (Table 1) described a recent spatial trend in benthic habitat quality that corresponded to the down-Bay gradient in nutrients and contaminants (Calabretta and Oviatt 2008). The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Trends report described changes in the benthic community in the Upper Bay (i.e., Providence River, Greenwich Bay, Mount Hope Bay) from the 1950s to 2015 from a variety of studies, including those listed in Table 1, except for the benthic video sled (Chintala et al. 2015). The trends report found that overall benthic diversity has declined since the 1950s and that there has been a shift from pollution-sensitive to pollution-tolerant species at many of the locations sampled (Chintala et al. 2015). The EPA Trends report linked those
Analyses of benthic sampling efforts between the 1950s and around 1980 show a gradient of increasing benthic species abundance and diversity from the Providence River estuary to Conimicut Point, likely due to the decreasing gradient of organic loadings, sewage effluent, incidences of hypoxia and anoxia, and phytoplankton blooms (Frithsen 1990). South of Conimicut Point, there was little spatial variation in benthic species abundance and diversity within this same time period; this pattern was attributed to lower exposure to stressors (Frithsen 1990). More recent efforts to monitor benthic biotopes are summarized in Table 1. Each survey has spatial and/or temporal limitations, and only a few can provide a consistent trend assessment over more than 10 years. Table 1. Recent efforts to monitor benthic habitat and/or community composition in Narragansett Bay. Benthic monitoring strategy Organizing group Spatial extent Temporal extent Future sampling Benthic macrofauna community composition and abundance Marine Ecosystems Research Laboratory, URI-GSO 4 stations in Upper Bay 4 stations 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004; 1 station None planned Trends report EPA Upper Bay Trends analysis of data None planned National Coastal Condition Report EPA Bay wide (some stations permanent, others changing) Summer 2005/6, 2010, 2015 2020 Benthic video sled Narragansett Bay Commission 3 transects in Providence River estuary Monthly, Monthly Sediment profile imagery URI Bay wide 1988, 2008 None planned The benthic macrofauna monitoring efforts by the Marine Ecosystems Research Laboratory at the University of Rhode Island (Table 1) described a recent spatial trend in benthic habitat quality that corresponded to the down-Bay gradient in nutrients and contaminants (Calabretta and Oviatt 2008). The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Trends report described changes in the benthic community in the Upper Bay (i.e., Providence River, Greenwich Bay, Mount Hope Bay) from the 1950s to 2015 from a variety of studies, including those listed in Table 1, except for the benthic video sled (Chintala et al. 2015). The trends report found that overall benthic diversity has declined since the 1950s and that there has been a shift from pollution-sensitive to pollution-tolerant species at many of the locations sampled (Chintala et al. 2015). The EPA Trends report linked those 2010 present
Benthic_Habitat.docx