title: Statistical power to detect change in a mangrove shoreline fish community adjacent to a nuclear power plant.
abstract: An expansion is underway of a nuclear power plant on the shoreline of Biscayne Bay, Florida, USA. While the precise effects of its construction and operation are unknown, impacts on surrounding marine habitats and biota are considered by experts to be likely. The objective of the present study was to determine the adequacy of an ongoing monitoring survey of fish communities associated with mangrove habitats directly adjacent to the power plant to detect fish community changes, should they occur, at three spatial scales. Using seasonally resolved data recorded during 532 fish surveys over an 8-year period, power analyses were performed for four mangrove fish metrics (fish diversity, fish density, and the occurrence of two ecologically important fish species: gray snapper (Lutjanus griseus) and goldspotted killifish (Floridichthys carpio). Results indicated that the monitoring program at current sampling intensity allows for detection of <33% changes in fish density and diversity metrics in both the wet and the dry season in the two larger study areas. Sampling effort was found to be insufficient in either season to detect changes at this level (<33%) in species-specific occurrence metrics for the two fish species examined. The option of supplementing ongoing, biological monitoring programs for improved, focused change detection deserves consideration from both ecological and cost-benefit perspectives.
authors.affiliation: Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL, 421-4000, USA. tara.dolan@stonybrook.edu.|School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA. tara.dolan@stonybrook.edu.
authors.forename: T E
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0937-0342
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Dolan
authors.affiliation: Office of Science and Technology, National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 East-west Highway, Silver Spring, MD, 33149, USA. patrick.lynch@noaa.gov.
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Lynch
authors.affiliation: Southeast Regional Office, National Marine Fisheries Service, 400 N Congress Ave., Suite 110, West Palm Beach, FL, 33401, USA. jocelyn.karazsia@noaa.gov.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Karazsia
authors.affiliation: Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL, 421-4000, USA. joe.serafy@noaa.gov.|Southeast Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, 75 Virginia Beach Drive, Miami, FL, 33149, USA. joe.serafy@noaa.gov.
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Serafy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005399:Fishes; D005431:Florida; D015233:Models, Statistical; D055848:Nuclear Power Plants; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012621:Seasons; D053833:Wetlands
keywords: Fish assemblages; Impact assessment; Monitoring; Nuclear power plant; Power analysis