Compositional Fidelity of Death Assemblages From a Coral Reef-Associated Tidal-Flat and Shallow Subtidal Lagoon in the Northern Red Sea

Zuschin, Martin; Ebner, Claudia

doi:10.2110/palo.2014.032

Cited by 19 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…The habitat type had a strong influence on the diversity and assemblage structure, which agrees with reports about dead [10,68,69] and live mollusks [28]. Reef sands harbored a high richness of mollusks, which also agrees with other studies (e.g., [70,71]).…”

Section: Mollusk Death Assemblages: Reef Sands Versus Seagrass Meadowssupporting

confidence: 91%

Taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity of mollusk death assemblages in coral reef and seagrass sediments from two shallow gulfs in Western Cuban Archipelago

Peraza-Escarrá,

Armenteros,

Fernández-Garcés

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Mollusk death assemblages are formed by shell remnants deposited in the surficial mixed layer of the seabed. Diversity patterns in tropical marine habitats still are understudied; therefore, we aimed to investigate the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity of mollusk death assemblages at regional and local scales in coral reef sands and seagrass meadows. We collected sediment samples at 11 sites within two shallow gulfs in the Northwestern Caribbean Sea and Southeastern Gulf of Mexico. All the shells were counted and identified to species level and classified into biological traits. We identified 7113 individuals belonging to 393 species (290 gastropods, 94 bivalves, and nine scaphopods). Diversity and assemblage structure showed many similarities between gulfs given their geological and biogeographical commonalities. Reef sands had higher richness than seagrasses likely because of a more favorable balance productivity-disturbance. Reef sands were dominated by epifaunal herbivores likely feeding on microphytobenthos and bysally attached bivalves adapted to intense hydrodynamic regime. In seagrass meadows, suspension feeders dominated in exposed sites and chemosynthetic infaunal bivalves dominated where oxygen replenishment was limited. Time averaging of death assemblages was likely in the order of 100 years, with stronger effects in reef sands compared to seagrass meadows. Our research provides evidence of the high taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity of mollusk death assemblages in tropical coastal sediments as result of the influence of scale-related processes and habitat type. Our study highlights the convenience of including phylogenetic and functional traits, as well as dead shells, for a more complete assessment of mollusk biodiversity.

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Section: Mollusk Death Assemblages: Reef Sands Versus Seagrass Meadowssupporting

confidence: 91%

Taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity of mollusk death assemblages in coral reef and seagrass sediments from two shallow gulfs in Western Cuban Archipelago

Peraza-Escarrá,

Armenteros,

Fernández-Garcés

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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“…In pristine conditions, DAs show a high degree of ecological fidelity to their corresponding living assemblages when appropriately sampled (e.g. Albano, 2014; Albano and Sabelli, 2011; Kidwell, 2001; Martinelli et al, 2016; Michelson et al, 2018; Zuschin and Ebner, 2015) with differences mostly due to the effects of time averaging (Kidwell and Tomašových, 2013; Tomašových and Kidwell, 2009). Consequently, such DAs are reliable recorders of past environmental conditions (Kidwell, 2015; Kowalewski, 2009) and increasingly used as benchmarks to detect human-induced ecosystem shifts (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene fish assemblages provide baseline data for the rapidly changing eastern Mediterranean

Agiadi

Albano

2020

The Holocene

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The eastern Mediterranean marine ecosystem is undergoing massive modification due to biological invasions, overfishing, habitat deterioration, and climate warming. Our ability to quantify these changes is severely hindered by the lack of an appropriate baseline; most ecological datasets date back a few decades only and show already strong signatures of impact. Surficial death assemblages (DAs) offer an alternative data source that provides baseline information on community structure and composition. In this study, we reconstruct the marine fish fauna of the southern shallow Israeli shelf before the opening of the Suez Canal based on fish otoliths. We quantify the age of the otolith DAs by radiocarbon dating, and describe its taxonomic composition, geographic affinity, and trophic structure. Additionally, we test by radiocarbon dating the hypothesis that Bregmaceros, a presumed Lessepsian invader with continuous presence in the Mediterranean throughout the late Cenozoic, is a relict species. The otolith DA dates back to the mid-Holocene because 75% of the dated otoliths of the native species are older than the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, suggesting that the DA is a proper baseline for quantifying modern impacts. Consistently, 97% of the otoliths and 88% of the species we collected belong to native Mediterranean species. The native anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus dominates the DAs, although gobiids are the most diverse group (14 species, 28%). The DAs show similar trophic structure to present-day pristine Mediterranean coastal fish assemblages. Two non-indigenous species are recorded here for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, Amblygobius albimaculatus and Callogobius sp., highlighting the importance of DAs for detecting non-indigenous species. Finally, Bregmaceros otoliths are modern, not supporting the previous hypothesis that the taxon is a Pleistocene relict.

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“…It is therefore necessary to compare living assemblages not only to surface death assemblages but also to buried death assemblages from historical layers below the mixed layer, which may serve as a pre-impact ecological baseline (Tomasovych et al 2023a). Without geochronological context it is often difficult if not impossible to know whether skeletal remains in the death assemblage are from a pre- or post-impact community (e.g., Zuschin and Ebner 2015). Where surface mixing occurs (i.e., in all oxygenated marine sediments), however, the assignment of a unique (single-year) date to a sediment layer is not possible (Kuzyk et al 2015).…”

Section: Historical Layers Are Important For Baseline Determinationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges of Conservation Paleobiology: From Baselines to Novel Communities to the Necessity for Granting Rights to Nature

Zuschin

2023

Palaios

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Compositional Fidelity of Death Assemblages From a Coral Reef-Associated Tidal-Flat and Shallow Subtidal Lagoon in the Northern Red Sea

Cited by 19 publications

References 56 publications

Taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity of mollusk death assemblages in coral reef and seagrass sediments from two shallow gulfs in Western Cuban Archipelago

Taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity of mollusk death assemblages in coral reef and seagrass sediments from two shallow gulfs in Western Cuban Archipelago

Holocene fish assemblages provide baseline data for the rapidly changing eastern Mediterranean

Challenges of Conservation Paleobiology: From Baselines to Novel Communities to the Necessity for Granting Rights to Nature

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