Date of Award

Spring 1982

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Biological Sciences

Program/Concentration

Biology

Committee Director

Harold G. Marshall

Committee Member

James F. Matta

Committee Member

Carl Erkenbrecher

Committee Member

Kneeland Nesius

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.B46 R88

Abstract

Community structures of phytoplankton populations from the southern portion of the Chesapeake Bight were examined and associated to real and environmental spaces. The sampling design was specifically intended to examine the small scale three dimensional structure of the Chesapeake Bay plume as characterized by its phytoplankton populations. The phytoplankton were sampled at 101 stations, non-synoptically, over a five day period in mid-June, 1980.

Several multivariate numerical techniques were used to determine the relationships between the phytoplankton species distributions and pattern the low salinity plume distribution. A pattern of distribution which approximated the salinity plume resulted from several clustering procedures. Environmental ordination salinity most often co-varied with the phytoplankton community structure shifts. Results of the discriminant analyses revealed the variation in the phytoplankton assemblages was sufficient to classify the stations into the plume and non-plume groups with 100% efficiency. The results suggested the plume effected the phytoplankton community structures within the Chesapeake Bight.

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DOI

10.25777/eqd9-dk35

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