Phytoplankton Index of Biotic Integrity and Reference Communities for Barnegat Bay–Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey: A Pilot Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Ren, L.; Belton, T.J.; Schuster, R., and Enache, M., 2017. Phytoplankton index of biotic integrity and reference communities for Barnegat Bay–Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey: A pilot study. In: Buchanan, G.A.; Belton, T.J., and Paudel, B. (eds.), A Comprehensive Assessment of Barnegat Bay–Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. A pilot study was carried out to quantify season-salinity-specific phytoplankton reference communities and to develop a phytoplankton index of biotic integrity (P-IBI) for Barnegat Bay–Little Egg Harbor (BB-LEH) estuary, using approaches similar to those for the Chesapeake Bay. Synchronized phytoplankton and water-quality data collected between August 2011 and August 2013 from the Barnegat Bay Water Quality Monitoring Program were used as calibration data set. The results showed that one-fifth of samples were from the least-impaired habitat condition, with low turbidity and low concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and orthophosphate (PO4). Nearly 60% of samples were from un...