Limited congruence exhibited across microbial, meiofaunal and macrofaunal benthic assemblages in a heterogeneous coastal environment.

ABSTRACT: One of the most common approaches for investigating the ecology of spatially complex environments is to examine a single biotic assemblage present, such as macroinvertebrates. Underlying this approach are assumptions that sampled and unsampled taxa respond similarly to environmental gradients and exhibit congruence across different sites. These assumptions were tested for five benthic groups of various sizes (archaea, bacteria, microbial eukaryotes/protists, meiofauna and macrofauna) in Plymouth Sound, a harbour with many different pollution sources. Sediments varied in granulometry, hydrocarbon and trace metal concentrations. Following variable reduction, canonical correspondence analysis did not identify any associations between sediment characteristics and assemblage composition of arch

SUBMITTER: Cronin-O'Reilly S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6195585 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature