Merja Zerga lagoon: study of the functional structure and bioassessment of the ecological quality of benthic communities

Touhami, Feirouz; Bazairi, Hocein; Badaoui, Bouabid; Bouarour, O.; Benhoussa, Abdelaziz

doi:10.26872/jmes.2017.8.12.885

Cited by 11 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The soft-bottom macrofauna of the Moulay Bousselham lagoon was mainly characterized by the dominance of Mollusca (38.09%), followed by Arthropoda (31.75%), Annelida (28.57%) and Nemertea (1.59%). These results contrast both with previous studies carried out on the lagoon [22,46,55,56], which noted the dominance of mollusks, polychaetes and crustaceans, and with the conclusions of [21], who noted the predominance of crustaceans, followed by polychaetes and mollusks. These results may be related to differences in sampling methods and designs.…”

Section: Benthic Macrofaunacontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Benthic Macrofaunacontrasting

confidence: 90%

“…On the other hand, the macrobenthic faunal densities observed in this study (4582.8 ind/m 2 ) were higher than those reported by [77] (3106.0 ind/m 2 ) and lower to those observed by [46] (5763.0 ind/m 2 ). The maximum biomass value reported in our study (92.5 g/m 2 ) is higher than that reported by [46]. The highest values were recorded in the vegetated habitats, while the mean value of the biomass (22.2 g/m 2 ) is similar to that reported by [78] (22.0 g/m 2 ) and very close to the results of [46] (20.0 g/m 2 ).…”

Section: Benthic Macrofaunacontrasting

confidence: 90%

“…In this study, not all water parameters varied as gradients between upstream and downstream areas. Only salinity and temperature clearly decreased with gradients upstream in conformity with the findings of [21,46]. Both salinity and temperature gradients resulted from the ocean-continent gradient related to the position of stations across the lagoon and the sampling time.…”

Section: Environmental Variablessupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Compared with previous studies, the number of species was higher than observed by [22]: 45, [23]: 54, [46]: 46 and lower than that obtained by [21]:173 taxa. In comparison with other lagoon systems, the species richness shows higher values than the lagoons of Sidi Moussa [55,57,58], Oualidia [59][60][61], Khnifiss [60,62], Ghar El-Melh [63], Mellah [64], Cabras [65,66], Celestun [67], Epe [68] and Lesina [69].…”

Section: Benthic Macrofaunacontrasting

confidence: 89%

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Spatial Patterns of Macrozoobenthos Assemblages in a Sentinel Coastal Lagoon: Biodiversity and Environmental Drivers

Boutoumit

Bououarour

Kamcha

et al. 2021

JMSE

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This study presents an assessment of the diversity and spatial distribution of benthic macrofauna communities along the Moulay Bousselham lagoon and discusses the environmental factors contributing to observed patterns. In the autumn of 2018, 68 stations were sampled with three replicates per station in subtidal and intertidal areas. Environmental conditions showed that the range of water temperature was from 25.0 °C to 12.3 °C, the salinity varied between 38.7 and 3.7, while the average of pH values fluctuated between 7.3 and 8.0. In vegetated habitats, biomass values of the seagrass Zostera noltei Hornemann ranged between 31.7 gDW/m² and 170.2 gDW/m² while the biomass of the seagrass Ruppia cirrhosa (Petagna) Grande between 54.2 gDW/m² and 84.7 gDW/m². Sediment analyses showed that the lagoon is mainly composed of sandy and silty sediments. We recorded 37,165 individuals of macrofauna distributed in 63 taxa belonging to 50 families, with a mean abundance value of 4582.8 ind/m² and biomass average of 22.2 g/m². Distance-based linear modeling analysis (DISTLM) identified sediment characteristics, water parameters and habitat type (biomass of Z. noltei) as the major environmental drivers influencing macrozoobenthos patterns. Our results clearly revealed that the hydrographic regime (marine and terrestrial freshwater), sediment distribution and characteristics and the type of habitat (vegetated vs unvegetated substrate) are the key factors determining the species composition and patterns of macrozoobenthos assemblages.

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Section: Benthic Macrofaunacontrasting

confidence: 99%