Conserve natural ecological communities and maintain viable populations of native species. Benthic communities from various places around the Bay are evaluated on measures of species diversity, species composition, productivity, and trophic composition. These are then averaged to determine the overall score used to classify the benthic community at a site. Scores for sites within each of the six regions are used to determine the percent area of each region that meets the Restoration Goals. Healthy benthic communities provide important food resources for higher trophic levels such as fish.
Toxic chemicals can accumulate in the sediments and adversely impact the benthic community.