Figure 2 - available via license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Content may be subject to copyright.
(a) Bar chart showing the densities of the four motility classes per treatment, in ind m-2. M1 = organisms living fixed in a tube, M2 = sessile, but not fixed in a tube, M3 = slowly moving organisms, M4 = free movement through a burrow system. (b) Bar chart showing the densities in, ind m-2 , of the four main functional groups, based on sediment reworking activity. S = Surficial modifiers, B = biodiffusors, UC = 5
Source publication
Human activities, among which dredging and land use change in river basins, are altering estuarine ecosystems. These activities may result in changes in sedimentary processes, affecting biodiversity of sediment macrofauna. As macrofauna control sediment chemistry and fluxes of energy and matter between water column and sediment, changes in the stru...
Similar publications
As the effects of climate change continue to intensify, non-native species are becoming more prevalent in estuarine ecosystems. This has implications for the taxonomic and functional diversity of fish communities. Historically, biodiversity has been a synonym of taxonomic diversity, however this approach often fails to provide accurate insights on...
Sediment, nutrient and metal loading to estuarine and coastal environments is increasing hence there is a growing need to predict ecological responses to such change. Maximum abundance models of 20 macrobenthic taxa and 22 functional traits were developed for sediments, nutrients and metals to predict how taxa and ecosystem function respond to key...
p>This paper analyses how scientists, policy makers and water users engage with scientific knowledge and uncertainties during a lengthy and complex decision-making process (2000–2014) about water quality, freshwater resources and climate adaptation in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt estuaries. The research zooms in on lake Volkerak-Zoom. Interviews confirm...
The ecological impacts of landscape modification and urbanisation have transformed the composition of plant and animal assemblages, and altered the condition of ecosystems globally. Landscape transformation influences the spatial distribution of species and ecological functions by selecting for generalist species with wide ecological niches, which...
A community hosted by an ecosystem composed of species sharing the same characteristics i.e. species showing the same response to the environment and/or species with the same impact on their environment, can be defined as a community with high functional redundancy. Such community is supposed to be less vulnerable to species loss and the ecosystem...
Citations
... Contrary to the salinity gradient, which represents a transition along distinct but suitable conditions for life in aquatic systems, several factors make one end of the sedimentary gradient highly inhospitable for many species. In mud bottoms, superficial fine sediment acts as physical barrier that increases the contribution of anaerobic pathways to the overall decomposition and relocates the reoxidation of reduced solutes upwards (Hohaia et al. 2014, Mestdagh et al. 2018. Under this circumstance, oxygen penetration depth never exceeds a few centimeters and becomes a major limiting factor for sediment-dwelling organisms (Mestdagh et al. 2018). ...
... In mud bottoms, superficial fine sediment acts as physical barrier that increases the contribution of anaerobic pathways to the overall decomposition and relocates the reoxidation of reduced solutes upwards (Hohaia et al. 2014, Mestdagh et al. 2018. Under this circumstance, oxygen penetration depth never exceeds a few centimeters and becomes a major limiting factor for sediment-dwelling organisms (Mestdagh et al. 2018). In addition, sessile or less motile benthic fauna that lives on the substratum or in tubes often have a limited capacity to escape the constant deposition of sediments, and suspension feeders risk damaging their respiratory apparatus (Stevens 1987, Mestdagh et al. 2018. ...
... Under this circumstance, oxygen penetration depth never exceeds a few centimeters and becomes a major limiting factor for sediment-dwelling organisms (Mestdagh et al. 2018). In addition, sessile or less motile benthic fauna that lives on the substratum or in tubes often have a limited capacity to escape the constant deposition of sediments, and suspension feeders risk damaging their respiratory apparatus (Stevens 1987, Mestdagh et al. 2018. Experiments have shown that even thin layers of deposition may reduce species diversity by nearly 50%, with the strongest effect on those taxa living on the sediment-water interface (Lohrer et al. 2004). ...
Environmental filtering is a major mechanism structuring ecological communities. However, it is still not clear how different abiotic drivers composing the environmental filter interact with each other to determine local species assemblage and create spatial patterns in species distribution. Here, we evaluated the effects of two strong and uncorrelated environmental variables (salinity and sediment properties) on the β‐diversity of an estuarine macrobenthic community while accounting for spatial effects. Our results show that the benthic community composition has a strong spatial structure along the estuary, which can be greatly explained by salinity and sediment variation. Salinity is most associated with species replacement (turnover), whereas sediment is more important for species loss (nestedness). However, the effects of sediment variation on nestedness are mainly detected at a smaller spatial scale (estuarine sectors), whereas the effects of salinity on species turnover are stronger as spatial scale increases (entire estuary). Our findings suggest that environmental filters can drive both turnover and nestedness components of β‐diversity, but that their relative importance depends on the spatial scale of investigation. Although abiotic drivers associated with detrimental effects (sediment) usually result in nestedness, larger spatial scales encompass abiotic drivers associated with different suitable conditions (salinity), increasing the relative importance of the replacement component of species β‐diversity.
