Benthic Infauna of the Southern California Bight Continental Slope: Characterizing Community Structure for the Development of an Index of Disturbance
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OCS Study BOEM 2019-050 Benthic Infauna of the Southern California Bight Continental Slope: Characterizing Community Structure for the Development of an Index of Disturbance US Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Pacific OCS Region OCS Study BOEM 2019-050 Benthic Infauna of the Southern California Bight Continental Slope: Characterizing Community Structure for the Development of an Index of Disturbance July 2019 Authors: David J. Gillett Lisa Gilbane Kenneth C. Schiff Prepared under Cooperative Agreement M16AC00013 By Southern California Coastal Water Research Project 3535 Harbor Blvd Suite 110 Costa Mesa, CA 92626 US Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Pacific OCS Region DISCLAIMER Study collaboration and funding were provided by the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Environmental Studies Program, Washington, DC, under Cooperative Agreement Number M16AC00013. This report has been technically reviewed by BOEM, and it has been approved for publication. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the US Government, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. REPORT AVAILABILITY To download a PDF file of this report, go to the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Data and Information Systems webpage (https://www.boem.gov/Environmental-Studies- EnvData/), click on the link for the Environmental Studies Program Information System (ESPIS), and search on 2019-050. CITATION Gillett, D.J., Gilbane, L., and Schiff, K.C. 2019. Benthic Infauna of the Southern California Bight Continental Slope: Characterizing Community Structure for the Development of an Index of Disturbance. Camarillo (CA): US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. OCS Study BOEM 2019-050. 157 p. ABOUT THE COVER Cover photo by Lisa Gilbane, showing collection of benthic samples aboard the vessel Hey Jude near oil and gas platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel, offshore southern California. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors thank Marcus Beck, Valerie Goodwin, and Abel Santana for help with data organization and help with some of the analyses. The authors also thank the Southern California Bight Regional Monitoring Program, Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, and the City of San Diego Public Utilities Department’s Ocean Monitoring Program for providing the infaunal, chemistry, and habitat data used for all of the analyses. The content of this report was improved by comments provided by Jonathan Blythe. Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ ii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................ iv List of Abbreviations and Acronyms .............................................................................................................. v 1 Executive Summary .............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 General Approach ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Results ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1.4 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................. 2 1.5 Recommendations ...................................................................................................................... 2 2 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 2 3 Methods ................................................................................................................................................ 4 3.1 General Approach ....................................................................................................................... 4 3.1.1 Objective 1: Data Sets ................................................................................................... 4 3.1.2 Objective 2: Reference Definition .................................................................................. 7 3.1.3 Objective 3: Biological Assemblages ............................................................................. 7 3.1.4 Objective 4: Response to Disturbance ........................................................................... 8 4 Results ................................................................................................................................................ 10 4.1 Identifying Habitats .................................................................................................................... 10 4.2 Disturbance Response .............................................................................................................. 16 5 Discussion ........................................................................................................................................... 25 5.1 Ecology of the Benthic Fauna ................................................................................................... 25 5.2 Assessing Habitat Condition ..................................................................................................... 26 6 References .......................................................................................................................................... 29 6.1 Literature Cited .......................................................................................................................... 29 6.2 R Packages Used ..................................................................................................................... 36 Appendix A: Inventory of Sediment Chemistry Measures .......................................................................... 37 Appendix B: Inventory of Benthic Infauna .................................................................................................. 46 Appendix C: Operational Taxonomic Units ................................................................................................. 78 Appendix D: Performance of Pre-existing Assessment Tools .................................................................... 81 Appendix E: Frequency of Occurrence and Relative Abundance of Benthic Infauna ................................ 84 Appendix F: Benthic Habitat Condition of the Continental Shelf Surrounding Oil and Gas Platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel, Offshore Southern California ........................................................ 128 Supplemental Data .................................................................................................................................... 157 i List of Figures Figure 1. Map of the Southern California Bight depicting the location of benthic samples collected from the continental slope. .................................................................................................................................... 5 Figure 2. Two-dimensional plot summarizing the nMDS ordination of reference sites. ............................. 10 Figure 3. Schematic box-plots of species richness and Shannon-Wiener Diversity among reference sites in each of the three deep water habitats. .................................................................................................... 11 Figure 4. Schematic box-plots of Latitude, Longitude, Depth, Clay, Sand, Silt, Total Nitrogen, and Total Organic Carbon among reference sites in each of the three deep water habitats. .................................... 16 Figure 5. A heatmap depicting the relative correlation between the different potential stressors used in the study. ........................................................................................................................................................... 17 Figure 6. Two-dimensional plot summarizing the nMDS ordination of samples from: a) Upper Slope b) Northwest Slope, and c) Lower Slope illustrating the relative separation of reference samples from non- reference samples. ...................................................................................................................................... 19 Figure 7. Two-dimensional plot summarizing the nMDS ordination of all reference and non-reference samples from the three identified habitats across the continental slope of the Southern California Bight. 20 Figure 8. Scatter plot of the abundance of the tellinid bivalve Tellina carpenteria with Total Nitrogen from the Upper Slope Habitat. ............................................................................................................................ 22 Figure 9. Scatter plots of pair-wise Bray-Curtis dissimilarity of reference samples from continental shelf habitats shallower than 200 m (a) and each continental slope habitat (b).. ............................................... 23 Figure D-1. Two-dimensional