Mollusk death assemblages in 210Pb-dated marine sediment cores reveal recent biotic changes in the Gulf of Guanahacabibes, NW Cuba

Armenteros, Maickel; Díaz-Asencio, Misael; Peraza-Escarrá, Rosely; Fernández-Garcés, Raúl; Martínez-Suárez, Adrian; Kenney, William F.; Brenner, Mark

doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2021.105477

Cited by 2 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…We recorded high evenness of the assemblages at regional scale, with the presence of one moderately abundant species and a very long tail of rare species (Fig 3A). This pattern agrees with the very high richness and low dominance of mollusk coastal assemblages in Cuban Archipelago as reported by other authors [33][34][35]37]. The high evenness reported in our study is also enhanced by two features [5]: (1) time averaging increases the probability of several PLOS ONE shifts in species dominance through time resulting in higher average evenness, although we have evidence of limited time averaging in our study.…”

Section: Plos Onesupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Evenness curves indicated that sites GG06 and GG09 were subjected to disturbance because of the dominance of a few hypoxia-tolerant species of Parvilucina. This agrees with Armenteros et al [37] that reported significant decline of mollusk diversity at the same sites based on core stratigraphy and 210 Pb dating. The pattern of similarity among replicates in the NMDS (Fig 9 ) suggested the overarching effect of habitat type on the assemblage structure, which agrees with other studies (e.g., [70]).…”

Section: Mollusk Death Assemblages At Local Scalesupporting

confidence: 93%

“…GB sites, in the shelf border, are subjected to an intense physical disturbance by waving and currents coming from the Caribbean Sea and are relatively far from the pollution sources in the Cuba Island. Meanwhile GG sites are closer to land, with slower flushing of water by hydrodynamics and more exposed to anthropogenic disturbances such as eutrophication and turbidity [ 37 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only one study exists about the deep-sea mollusk assemblages (about 1500 m depth) in the northwestern slope, reporting a very high diversity and potential transport of shells from the shelf [11]. Another three studies using sediment dating with 210 Pb and 14 C reported historical changes in mollusk death assemblages as response to human disturbances [35][36][37]. All the previous studies (with exception of [34]) only addressed taxonomic diversity, therefore phylogenetic and functional diversity patterns are unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All the previous studies (with exception of [34]) only addressed taxonomic diversity, therefore phylogenetic and functional diversity patterns are unknown. Previous dead shells studies in Cuba (i.e., [35][36][37]) did not explicitly examine the effects of the spatial scales neither compare different types of habitats. Therefore, it is appropriate to increase the sampling coverage of mollusk death assemblages and to include additional dimensions to the taxonomic diversity (i.e., phylogenetic and functional).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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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