Research Article
Identification of Fine-Scale Marine Benthic Ecoclines by Multiple Parallel Ordination
Table 2
Recorded environmental variables: group affiliation, name, description, range, and mean (of raw, untransformed values).
| Variable | Description | Range | Mean |
| DEM derived | | | | Aspect_E | Eastness component of aspect | −1.00–1.00 | 0.10 | Aspect_N | Northness component of aspect | −0.96–0.92 | –0.35 | BPI | Bathymetric position index | −1.52–1.34 | –0.06 | Depth [m] | Depth derived from DEM | 35.8–93.2 | 58.6 | Seabed_curv | Maximum curvature of the seabed (in any direction) | −0.011–0.042 | 0.005 | Slope [deg] | The slope of the seabed | 0.3–19.8 | 6.7 | Current model | | | | Current_bottom [m/s] | Maximum current speed at the bottom | 0.026–0.077 | 0.049 | Current_surface [m/s] | Maximum current speed at the ocean surface | 0.061–0.091 | 0.068 | Change_curr_bottom | The rate of instantaneous change of max bottom current | −1.71e-3–1.18e-3 | 1.96e-6 | Change_curr_surface | The rate of instantaneous change of max surface current | −1.18e-3–3.61e-4 | −1.92e-4 | Direction_curr_E | Eastness component of the direction of the bottom current | −1.00–0.97 | –0.47 | Direction_curr_N | Northness component of the direction of the bottom current | −1.00–1.00 | 0.24 | Particle-size | | | | Mud content [%] | The silt-clay fraction of the sediment | 8.4–77.2 | 55.6 | Sed_kurt | Kurtosis of the sediment particle distribution | 0.70–1.31 | 0.94 | Sed_med [μm] | Median sediment particle-size | 28.0–944.9 | 97.1 | Sed_skew | Skewness of the sediment particle-size distribution | −0.78–0.36 | 0.09 | Sed_sort | Sorting of the sediment particle-size distribution | 4.2–8.6 | 5.8 | Other variables | | | | BMD [cm] | Biogenic mixing depth derived from sediment profile images | 0.0–3.1 | 1.7 | Penetration_depth [cm] | Penetration depth of SPI—a proxy for sediment shear strength | 0.0–19.4 | 12.2 | CN | Carbon-to-nitrogen-ratio (weight/weight) | 7.9–19.3 | 11.5 | TOC [%] | Percentage of total organic carbon | 1.7–5.6 | 3.8 | TN [%] | Percentage of organic nitrogen | 0.12–0.63 | 0.34 | VEAS_dist [m] | Distance from effluent of VEAS wastewater treatment plant | 1143–2120 | 1640 |
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