Why Monitor Benthic Communities?
Little is known about the environmental cues controlling recruitment, establishment and persistence of marine benthic epifaunal communities. In particular, the timing and quantity of recruitment of invasive species is not well understood. As global biological invasion events increase, through range expansions of native species and introduction of exotic species, it becomes increasingly important to understand the spatial and temporal processes controlling epifaunal community dynamics. Invasive species are of special concern when they threaten ecosystem diversity and commercially important species. Our current monitoring program focuses on temporal and spatial population dynamics for a number of native and invasive hard-substrate benthic animals at several sites along the northern coast of eastern Long Island Sound. Learn more about: Monitoring recruitment Site characteristics Recruitment species Recruitment patterns Temperature response by recruitment site Temperature response by speci