Taxonomic harmonization may reveal a stronger association between diatom assemblages and total phosphorus in large datasets.

ABSTRACT: Diatom data have been collected in large-scale biological assessments in the United States, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA). However, the effectiveness of diatoms as indicators may suffer if inconsistent taxon identifications across different analysts obscure the relationships between assemblage composition and environmental variables. To reduce these inconsistencies, we harmonized the 2008-2009 NRSA data from nine analysts by updating names to current synonyms and by statistically identifying taxa with high analyst signal (taxa with more variation in relative abundance explained by the analyst factor, relative to environmental variables). We then screened a subset of samples with QA/QC data and combined taxa with mismatching

SUBMITTER: Lee SS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7425634 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature