Document of bibliographic reference 312766

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Meiofauna communities, nematode diversity and C degradation rates in seagrass (Posidonia oceanica L.) and unvegetated sediments invaded by the algae Caulerpa cylindracea (Sonder)

Abstract

We investigated meiofauna and sedimentary C cycling in seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) and unvegetated sediments invaded and not invaded by the non-indigenous tropical algae Caulerpa cylindracea. In both habitats, invaded sediments were characterized by higher organic matter contents. No effect was observed for prokaryotes and C degradation rates. In seagrass sediments, C turnover in invaded beds was about half that in not invaded ones. Meiofaunal communities varied significantly among invaded and not invaded grounds only in bare sediments. In both habitats, nematode species richness and assemblage composition were not affected by the algae. The effect of C. cylindracea on the turnover and nestedness components of the Jaccard dissimilarity varied between the two habitats. We show that the presence of C. cylindracea gives rise to variable consequences on meiofauna biodiversity and C cycling in different habitats. We conclude that further studies across different habitats and ecological components are needed to ultimately understand and predict the consequences of C. cylindracea invasion in shallow Mediterranean ecosystems.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000381168000010

Bibliographic citation

Pusceddu, A.; Fraschetti, S.; Scopa, M.; Rizzo, L.; Danovaro, R. (2016). Meiofauna communities, nematode diversity and C degradation rates in seagrass (Posidonia oceanica L.) and unvegetated sediments invaded by the algae Caulerpa cylindracea (Sonder). Mar. Environ. Res. 119: 88-99. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2016.05.015

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true