The application of univariate and distributional analyses to assess the impacts of diamond mining on marine macrofauna off the Namibian Coast

Winckler, Heidi

The application of univariate and distributional analyses to assess the impacts of diamond mining on marine macrofauna off the Namibian Coast

Master Thesis

1999

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Oceanography

Faculty

Faculty of Science

Abstract

This study is one of three based on grab samples of macrobenthos obtained before and at different times after mining for diamonds off the coast of Namibia. The first study dealt with multivariate clustering analysis of the first samples before and after mining. The second study focused on recovery times after mining and this study is aimed at estimating the amount of stress encountered by benthic communities, for comparision with the descriptive multivariate approach. Two research areas, classified as 'northern' and 'southern' were investigated. Data were aggregated and analysed at the genus level. Graphical and statistical analyses were conducted on the data which was classified in three ways. First, on all unmined sites from the two research areas together to test for natural site-to-site variability. Secondly and thirdly, each research area (north and south) was analysed separately to test for differences between unmined and mined sites at each area. Stress levels in the community were assessed by Caswell's neutral model (the Vstatistic) and by interpretation of the value of the W-statistic (a summary statistic of the ABC curves). Correlation techniques were applied to assess if there was any relationship between the diversity indices (as indicators of the influence of disturbance on community structure) on the one hand, and the environmental indicators of disturbance (percentage gravel, sand, mud) on the other.

Description

Bibliography: pages 114-116.

Keywords

Marine Biology

Reference:

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