Documenting the relationship between substrate angle and invertebrate assembly patterns: An approach for assemblage identification

Abstract

I looked at the effects of substrate angle on species assemblages across a gradient from horizontal to vertical. In doing so I categorized the sloping gradient of six bins of 15°, and analyzed photographic quadrats placing them into one of these six categories. Additionally I analyzed these quadrats for percent cover down to the lowest taxonomic level. I took this a step farther and grouped these into phyla and “space available”, I did this to further tease apart possible relationships between substrate angle and percent cover across species. Looking at past literature I discussed how substrate angle has only looked at horizontal versus vertical substrate angles, while neglecting the gradient between these two extremes. Using statistical analyses I was able to determine possible extensions to this study, as well as limitations in drawing conclusions from the collected data.