Functional diversity of marine macrobenthic communities from sublittoral soft-sediment habitats off northern Chile

Abstract

Benthic communities show changes in composition and structure across different environmental characteristics and habitats. However, incorporating species biological traits into the analysis can provide a better understanding of system functioning within habitats. We compare the functional diversity of macrobenthic communities from a contrasting shallow (15 m) and deep (50 m) sublittoral soft-sediment habitats in northern Chile, using biological traits analysis. Our aim was to highlight the biological characteristics responsible for differences between habitats and the implications for ecosystem functioning. Trait analysis showed that the deep habitat was restricted in providing functionally important biogenic structure and bioturbation and supports less diverse feeding-related energy pathways. The shallow habitat is characterized by more diverse energy pathways and a higher potential for matter exchange through bioturbation. We provide support to the predictions of transfer of energy from the benthos to upper trophic levels in the shallow, which is characterized mainly by normoxia and little organic matter content in the sediment. In the deep habitat, characterized by hypoxia and more organic matter, energy appears to be transferred to microbial components. We suggest that trait analysis should be added to the traditional approaches based on species diversity, because it provides indicators of ecosystem stress

Distribution of Gastropoda and Its Relation With Environmental Characteristics in Coastal Waters of Nusalaut Island, Central Maluku

“…Cohen et al (1999) menyatakan bahwa uptake oksigen yang dilakukan oleh fitoplankton akan mempengaruhi variasi konsentrasi kation (K + , Mg ++, Ca + ), karbon organik terlarut dan nitrogen terlarut. Pacheco et al (2011) menambahkan bahwa pada perairan pesisir yang dangkal, aliran energi dan pertukaran nutrien akan lebih beragam disebabkan adanya pengadukan (bioturbation) maupun akibat adanya aktivitas menggali (burrowing) yang dilakukan oleh biota bentik. Menurut Beasley et al (2005), dinamika kation dan nutrien kemungkinan akan mempengaruhi variasi kelimpahan infauna termasuk moluska yang ada di perairan tersebut.…”

Nuevas perspectivas en la diversidad funcional de ambientes marinos

“…En ambientes acuáticos la mayor cantidad de trabajos relacionados con la diversidad funcional se ha desarrollado en macro-invertebrados riparios (Heino, 2005(Heino, , 2008Heino et al, 2007 con el enfoque hacia el análisis de los atributos funcionales), así como en zonas costeras de sustrato rocoso (Crowe & Russel, 2009;Clemente et al, 2010), fondos blandos (Pacheco et al, 2011) y estuarios (Villéger et al, 2008McLenaghan et al, 2011).…”

Functional Diversity and Traits Assembly Patterns of Benthic Macrofaunal Communities in the Southern North Sea

“…the range and number of functional traits performed within an ecosystem (Dıáz and Cabido 2001), is a useful indicator of ecosystem functioning (Hooper et al 2005). Several methods based on species morphological and ecological traits have been proposed to describe and quantify functional diversity of benthic assemblages (Beche et al 2006;Bremner et al 2006;Pacheco et al 2011;van der Molen et al 2013). We used biological trait analysis (BTA) to explore the ecological functioning of benthic assemblages (Sigala et al 2012;van der Linden et al 2012) and to compare functional diversity across different assemblages.…”

“…This method is suitable for analysing assemblage responses to environmental parameters (Paganelli et al 2012;Shettleworth 2012). Hence, BTA provides a link between benthic assemblages, environment and ecosystem processes (Oug et al 2012;Pacheco et al 2011) The objectives of this study were (a) to determine the dominant functional characteristics of the German Bight benthos and (b) to identify functional differences between benthic communities at different sites by comparing functional diversity.…”