The approach looks basically sound, except that you have my empathy
on trying to do it with such limited resources. My main concern would be
statistical rigor. I think that you can get A description and your plan is
a reasonable way to go about that process. Watch the experimental design
on the longer-term monitoring, all the more so because the data might well
find themselves in court some day.
The "suites of organisms" are simply likely assemblages
("associations" in much of the literature) from amongst the virtually
infinite possible combinations of distribution and abundance patterns.
There are many natural ones, and then there are ones characteristic of
polluted waters. Polluted aquatic communities tend to resemble certain
naturally occuring ones: e.g., disturbance or early-successional
assemblages, high-nutrient regime assemblages, etc. In other words, I
wasn't saying anything terribly profound here. Just suggesting that you be
able to measure associations between environmental parameters and biotic
communities, which it looks like you will do.
Boy, do I ever wish you luck. Stay in touch.
Les Kaufman
Boston University Marine Program
Department of Biology
Boston University
5 Cummington Street
Boston, MA 02215
e-mail: lesk at bio.bu.edu
phone: 617-353-5560
fax: 617-353-6340