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Presented at the NABS Annual meeting, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2002
in Wetlands I
MACROINVERTEBRATE ASSEMBLAGES IN THE OKEFENOKEE SWAMP: INFLUENCES OF PLANT COMMUNITY, HYDROLOGY, AND SEASON.
E.B. Kratzer, D.P. Batzer, and J.V. McHugh. Department of Entomology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602
Resident macroinvertebrate communities of the Okefenokee Swamp have been largely understudied despite both the magnitude of the swamp and the importance of invertebrate species in wetland ecosystems. Knowledge about the structure and function of the Okefenokee invertebrate fauna will provide valuable insight into the ecological functioning of the habitat. We conducted a 2 year study to describe the aquatic invertebrate communities of the Okefenokee Swamp and to investigate spatial and temporal variation in these communities. We collected invertebrates from 6 sampling areas spread across 3 hydrologic units. Within each area, sampling was stratified to include aquatic (lake, river, or canal), herbaceous marsh, scrub-shrub, and cypress habitats. Sampling was conducted in May, August, and December of each year. We used multivariate statistics to evaluate variation among spatial and temporal parameters.
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