Document of bibliographic reference 6260

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Hypoxia, salinity and temperature as structuring factors for marine benthic communities in a eutrophic area

Abstract

During 1983 to 1990 the benthic macrofauna was studied at eight stations along a depth gradient from 5 to 53 m in the SE Kattegat on the Swedish west coast. The area is almost non-tidal and characterized by a strong halocline at about 15 m with brackish water (S=12 to 25) at the surface and oceanic water (S=32 to 34) below the halocline. Increasing eutrophication of the area has caused annual periodic below-halocline oxygen deficiency in the 1980s. In this paper, we present spatial and temporal benthic-community structural differences between the fauna above, around and below the halocline. As a consequence of the extensive and severe hypoxia below the halocline, especially in autumn 1988, significant reductions of the benthic fauna were recorded. We conclude that the salinity variation around the halocline in combination with oxygen stress at these depths and just below the halocline have great impact on the benthic faunal structure and biomass. Our long-term field observations suggest that benthic sub-littoral communities can survive lower oxygen concentrations than previously presented.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:A1992KR43100013

Bibliographic citation

Rosenberg, R.; Loo, L.-O.; Möller, P. (1992). Hypoxia, salinity and temperature as structuring factors for marine benthic communities in a eutrophic area. Neth. J. Sea Res. 30: 121-129. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0077-7579(92)90051-F

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true