Abstract

Abstract The estuarine ecosystems of southeastern Louisiana are threatened by numerous environmental impacts such as wetland loss, coastal development, and overharvesting of natural resources. If the relative health of different estuaries can be determined, then management efforts might be focused on those regions needing the most protection. Unfortunately, estuaries are by definition dynamic, precluding easy comparisons of relative environmental health. Meta-analyses can be used to overcome problems associated with this natural variability. Analyzing sizable ecological data sets that cover large spatial and temporal scales is helpful in assessing relative ecosystem health among different regions. To compare the health of four estuarine regions of southeastern Louisiana (the Barataria Basin, Lake Maurepas, Lake Pontchartrain, and the Biloxi Marsh and Chandeleur Islands region), we calculated taxonomic distinctness and variation in taxonomic distinctness for fishery-independent data collected from three ha...

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