Evidence of season-dependency in vegetation effects on macrofauna in temperate seagrass meadows (Baltic Sea).

ABSTRACT: Seagrasses and associated macrophytes are important components of coastal systems as ecosystem engineers, habitat formers, and providers of food and shelter for other organisms. The positive impacts of seagrass vegetation on zoobenthic abundance and diversity (as compared to bare sands) are well documented, but only in surveys performed in summer, which is the season of maximum canopy development. Here we present the results of the first study of the relationship between the seasonal variability of seagrass vegetation and persistence and magnitude of contrasts in faunal communities between vegetated and bare sediments. The composition, abundance, biomass, and diversity of macrozoobenthos in both habitats were compared five times throughout the year in temperate eelgrass meadows in the sout

SUBMITTER: Wlodarska-Kowalczuk M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4085053 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature