Zeta Diversity of Coastal Benthic Macroinvertebrates (BMIs)
While dreaming of researching on Catalina Island for an REU program at USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, I found myself in a virtual research program due to a global pandemic studying the community health of BMIs.
Using Zeta Diversity to assess BMIs in the Southern California bight
Mentor: Dr. Ariel Levi Simons, University of Southern California
Nuzhdin Lab
Coastal BMIs are important for indicating ecosystem health. Measuring their biodiversity allows us to assess the health of BMI assemblages in nearshore habitats like estuaries. However, there are limitations to using standard biodiversity measures and we aim to use 𝞯 (zeta) diversity to model regional biotic integrity of BMI assemblages. 𝞯 diversity measures the average number of taxa in common across any number of sites. Using data from the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) we analyzed numerous sediment samples in order to answer overarching ecological questions.