Document of bibliographic reference 367326

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Faunistic and structural changes in shallow coastal benthic communities of the Ebre Delta (NW Mediterranean Sea)

Abstract

The Ebre Delta (NW Mediterranean), which is considered a highly vulnerable ecosystem, is one of the most important European wetlands and belongs to the Natura 2000 network. The present study aims to characterize the benthic megainvertebrate communities inhabiting the Ebre Delta soft-bottom infralittoral to acquire faunistic and biological knowledge for two periods of time, 23 years apart. Experimental trawls were conducted during the two periods (1992–1993 and 2016–2017) in three depth strata, between 5 and 25 m. A total of 139 and 170 taxa were collected at each period, respectively. Our results showed that community species composition and structure varied between periods and among depth strata. Overall, a large decrease in density and biomass was detected for most species in all three depth strata examined (0–5, 15–20, and 20–25 m) in 2016–2017, especially in the shallowest stratum. Species richness was higher in 2016–2017 than in 1992–1993, and the lowest values were found at the shallowest stratum in both periods. The significant biomass losses herein reported highlight the need to increase, in time and effort, the monitoring of large marine invertebrates in coastal areas, where many taxa provide important ecosystem functions and services.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000997190200001

Bibliographic citation

Ramón, M.; Marco-Herrero, E.; Galimany, E.; Recasens, L.; Abelló, P. (2023). Faunistic and structural changes in shallow coastal benthic communities of the Ebre Delta (NW Mediterranean Sea). Diversity 15(5): 623. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d15050623

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true

Access rights

open access

Is accessible for free

true