Habitat degradation of an eelgrass bed variably affects epifaunal biodiversity
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biodiversity, Ecology, Marine Biology
- Keywords
- macrofaunal diversity, habitat loss, habitat structure, seagrass
- Copyright
- © 2018 Rossi et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Habitat degradation of an eelgrass bed variably affects epifaunal biodiversity. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26789v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26789v1
Abstract
Seagrass habitat complexity can determine species diversity and abundance, through, for instance, changes in the availability of microhabitats, refuge from predators or changes in the intensity and frequency of abiotic stressors. Human-related perturbations cause seagrass habitat degradation and, therefore, reduce its complexity, thereby affecting biodiversity. We have followed the epifaunal assemblages of a Zostera marina meadow and deliberately modified seagrass shoot density three times during a year to measure how epifaunal assemblages responded to habitat degradation and whether patterns of response were consistent through time. We have also measured in the laboratory how epifauna controlled epiphyte biomass, which could feedback on seagrass photosynthetic activity, growth and productivity, thereby changing its resilience to disturbances. Results have shown complex patterns, variable in time.
Author Comment
This is an abstract which has been accepted for the WCMB