Long-term changes in coastal zoobenthos in the northern Baltic Sea: the role of abiotic environmental factors

Abstract

Rousi, H., Laine, A. O., Peltonen, H., Kangas, P., Andersin, A-B., Rissanen, J., Sandberg-Kilpi, E., and Bonsdorff, E. 2013. Long-term changes in coastal zoobenthos in the northern Baltic Sea: the role of abiotic environmental factors – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 70: 440–451. We investigated site-specific changes in a coastal zoobenthic community during 1964–2007 in the northern Baltic Sea. Multivariate analysis indicated that the community structure had changed. The amphipods Monoporeia affinis and Pontoporeia femorata decreased drastically in the late 1970s–early 1980s, and by the early 1990s P. femorata vanished and M. affinis abundance was low. The decline of M. affinis and P. femorata was followed by an increase of the bivalve Macoma balthica and the arrival of the polychaete genus Marenzelleria in the 1990s. Trend analyses showed a rising trend for near-bottom temperature from the late 1960s. There was a significant decline in salinity during the early 1980s, which stabilized during the early 1990s. A negative trend was observed for oxygen concentration during the entire study period. There were interannual variations in the phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations, and a step-like increase in phosphorus concentration at the beginning of the 21st century. The correlations of temperature, salinity, oxygen, total phosphorus and nitrogen with zoobenthic communities were examined using Constrained Correspondence Analysis. Temperature was the most highly correlated explanatory variable for the benthic species. The study highlights the importance of long-term data sets in assessing the state and ecological processes of zoobenthic systems.

Biodiversity, feeding habits and reproductive strategies of benthic macrofauna in a protected area of the northern Adriatic Sea: a three-year study

“…caused by food supply due to sedimentation of the spring phytoplankton bloom (Cibic et al 2007b) or by oxygen deficiency due to high temperatures in late summer (Reiss & Kröncke, 2005). Although our results do not follow this general pattern dictated by seasonality, they are in accordance with those reported by Clarke & Frid (2001), Warwick et al (2002) and Rousi et al (2013) who also observed major yearly differences http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e-Publisher: EKT | Downloaded at 12/05/2018 10:06:52 | in macrofaunal structure rather than seasonal ones. According to the findings of these authors, macrofaunal development was strictly linked to particular environmental variations, such as changes in grain size, sedimentation rate and high temperature.…”

“…The taxonomic composition of the macrofaunal community during the study period revealed a typical community of sandy-mud and detrital sediments, as previously reported for the Gulf of Trieste (Mavrič et al, 2010;Faresi et al, 2012), for the northern Adriatic Sea (Simonini et al, 2004;Occhipinti-Ambrogi et al, 2005;Franzo et al, 2015), and worldwide (Warwick et al, 2002;Rousi et al, 2013;Somerfield et al, 2014).…”

Energetic solutions of Rock Sandpipers to harsh winter conditions rely on prey quality

“…, Rousi et al . , Jansson et al . ), but the values for these environmental variables in upper Cook Inlet are well within the optimal range for M. balthica (Kube et al .…”

“…Environmental characteristics (e.g. salinity, dissolved oxygen, temperature) can strongly affect the growth, shell attributes and survival of M. balthica (Jansen et al 2007a, Rousi et al 2013, Jansson et al 2015, but the values for these environmental variables in upper Cook Inlet are well within the optimal range for M. balthica (Kube et al 2006, Compton et al 2007, Jansen et al 2007b, Rousi et al 2013.…”

Benthic conditions around a historic shipwreck: Vrouw Maria (1771) in the northern Baltic proper

“…Marenzelleria, however, is an introduced species. After its introduction in the early 1990's, it has spread to almost all coastal and sea areas in Finland (Olenin and Leppäkoski, 1999;Paavola et al 2008;Rousi et al, 2013), and its effects on the environment, such as on benthic nutrient fluxes (Hietanen et al, 2007) and as a possible facilitator (Norkko et al, 2012), are currently subject of intense discussion. M. edulis, one of the most common species in the northern Baltic proper, occurred more sporadically in the sampled area with most individuals found on the sampling point with rocky bottom (Ap3).…”