Molluscan benthic communities at Brijuni Islands (northern Adriatic Sea) shaped by Holocene sea-level rise and recent human eutrophication and pollution.

ABSTRACT: The effects of and the interplay between natural and anthropogenic influences on the composition of benthic communities over long time spans are poorly understood. Based on a 160-cm-long sediment core collected at 44 m water depth in the NE Adriatic Sea (Brijuni Islands, Croatia), we document changes in molluscan communities since the Holocene transgression ~11,000 years ago and assess how they were shaped by environmental changes. We find that (1) a transgressive lag deposit with a mixture of terrestrial and marine species contains abundant seagrass-associated gastropods and epifaunal suspension-feeding bivalves, (2) the maximum-flooding phase captures the establishment of epifaunal bivalve-dominated biostromes in the photic zone, and (3) the highstand phase is characterized by increasing

SUBMITTER: Schnedl SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6204651 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature