Impacts on coralligenous outcrop biodiversity of a dramatic coastal storm.

ABSTRACT: Extreme events are rare, stochastic perturbations that can cause abrupt and dramatic ecological change within a short period of time relative to the lifespan of organisms. Studies over time provide exceptional opportunities to detect the effects of extreme climatic events and to measure their impacts by quantifying rates of change at population and community levels. In this study, we show how an extreme storm event affected the dynamics of benthic coralligenous outcrops in the NW Mediterranean Sea using data acquired before (2006-2008) and after the impact (2009-2010) at four different sites. Storms of comparable severity have been documented to occur occasionally within periods of 50 years in the Mediterranean Sea. We assessed the effects derived from the storm comparing changes in benthi

SUBMITTER: Teixido N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3542355 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature