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Aperture Effects on Spectroscopic Galaxy Activity Classification

Activity classification of galaxies based on long-slit and fiber spectroscopy can be strongly influenced by aperture effects. Here we investigate how activity classification for 14 nearby galaxies depends on the proportion of the host galaxy's light that is included in the aperture. We use both observed long-slit spectra and simulated elliptical-aperture spectra of different sizes. The degree of change varies with galaxy morphology and nuclear activity type. Starlight removal techniques can mitigate but not remove the effect of host galaxy contamination in the nuclear aperture. Galaxies with extra-nuclear star formation can show higher [O III] λ5007/Hβ ratios with increasing aperture, in contrast to the naive expectation that integrated light will only dilute the nuclear emission lines. We calculate the mean dispersion for the diagnostic line ratios used in the standard BPT diagrams with respect to the central aperture of spectral extraction to obtain an estimate of the uncertainties resulting from aperture effects.