Benthic Communities in Spartina alterniflora- and Phragmites australis-Dominated Salt Marshes in the Hackensack Meadowlands, New Jersey

Glossary

Amphipod

A small crustacean of the order Amphipoda.

Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

Statistical method that yields values that can be tested to determine whether a significant relation exists between variables.

Benthic

Organisms (e.g., protozoa, nematodes) living in sediments on sea or lake bottoms.

Decapod

A ten-legged crustacean of the order Decapoda (e.g. crab, lobster).

df (degrees of freedom)

In statistics, degrees of freedom are the number of values in probability distributions that are free to be varied.

Epibenthic

Organisms living on the surface of sediments on sea or lake bottoms.

Infauna

Benthic organisms (see above) that dig into the sediment bed or construct tubes or burrows.

Log-base-10 transformed (logarithmic transformation)

Statistical technique whereby each observation or raw value of data is replaced by the log of itself.

Meiofauna

Organisms that are larger than microfauna and smaller than macrofauna. They will generally pass through a 1-mm mesh but not a 0.3-mm mesh.

Mesohaline

Of or relating to a body of water with a salinity measure between 5 and 18 parts per thousand.

Mitigation (Mitigation Banking)

The process of preserving, enhancing, restoring, or creating habitat to compensate for (current or future) habitat disturbances elsewhere, especially due to development.

Multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA)

An extension of ANOVA (see above) to cover cases where there is more than one dependent variable.

Nekton

Actively swimming marine or freshwater organisms.

Oligochaetes

Any of various annelid worms of the class Oligochaeta, including the earthworms and a few small freshwater forms.

Oligohaline

Of or relating to a body of water with a salinity measure of less than 5 parts per thousand (or 5 grams of salt per liter).

p < 0.05

An indicator of statistical significance in which the probability of the result of a study being a chance occurrence is less than 5 in 100.

Polychaetes

Any of various annelid worms of the class Polychaeta, including mostly marine worms such as the lugworm, characterized by fleshy-paired appendages tipped with bristles on each body segment.

Refractometer

An instrument that measures the composition of liquids using light refraction.

Richness

The number of species in an area.

Stable isotope

Any naturally occurring, nondecaying isotope (see above) of an element. Many elements have several stable isotopes. For example, carbon (C) has carbon 12 (12C) and carbon 13 (13C).

Student-Newman-Keuls (SNK) multiple comparison test:

A statistical method for determining differences among groups of samples.

Taxon (plural: taxa)

A taxonomic rank, such as family, genus, or species.