Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T13:13:42.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Decomposing diversity patterns of a soft-bottom macroinvertebrate community in the tropical eastern Pacific

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2008

E. Godínez-Domínguez ,
J. Freire ,
C. Franco-Gordo  and
G. González-Sansón
E. Godínez-Domínguez*
Affiliation:
Centro de Ecología Costera, Centro Universitario de la Costa Sur, Universidad de Guadalajara, V Gómez, Farías 82, San Patricio-Melaque, Jalisco, México, 48980 Departamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de A Coruña, Campus da Zapateira s/n, A Coruña, España, 15071
J. Freire
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de A Coruña, Campus da Zapateira s/n, A Coruña, España, 15071
C. Franco-Gordo
Affiliation:
Centro de Ecología Costera, Centro Universitario de la Costa Sur, Universidad de Guadalajara, V Gómez, Farías 82, San Patricio-Melaque, Jalisco, México, 48980 Departamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de A Coruña, Campus da Zapateira s/n, A Coruña, España, 15071
G. González-Sansón
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones Marinas, Universidad de La Habana, La Habana, Cuba
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: E. Godínez-Domínguez, Centro de Ecología Costera, Centro Universitario de la Costa Sur, Universidad de Guadalajara, V Gómez, Farías 82, San Patricio-Melaque, Jalisco, México, 48980 email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Diversity is one of the most frequently used attributes of ecological communities, and there is a long-standing discussion about their adequate use, calculus and interpretation. One of the most conspicuous and simple diversity estimators is species richness, but it has been criticized by recurrent pitfalls, which has biased comparisons and the testing of hypotheses. Otherwise, synthetic ecological indices of diversity are difficult to interpret due to the underlying complex or cryptic concepts. Most of the studies in soft-bottom macroinvertebrate communities trying to estimate species richness, have actually quantified species diversity as species density; the number of species per unit area. In the present study, the diversity of a tropical Pacific soft bottom community is analytically decomposed using two null models to assess species richness and evenness, and the slope of species–area curves to estimate species density. A declining trend of species richness was observed along a 2-year period and could be related to the cumulative effects of interannual environmental variability and fishing disturbance. The species–area relationship could be considered a good indicator of spatial heterogeneity, specifically to illustrate the depth gradient. Local abundance was negatively correlated with evenness, showing that high-density communities are the result of increases in abundance of a few dominant species. Here we demonstrate that seasonality, depth and abundance could explain diversity in soft-bottom macroinvertebrate communities of coastal waters and propose a robust procedure to survey diversity as a part of monitoring programmes of coastal management.

Keywords

diversityevennessspecies richnessspecies–area curvemacroinvertebrate assemblagestropical Pacificsoft-bottom benthos
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 89 , Issue 1 , February 2009 , pp. 31 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, M.J. (1998) Effects of patch size on colonization in estuaries: revisiting the species–area relationship. Oecologia 118, 87–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergen, M., Weisberg, S.B., Smith, R.W., Cadien, D.B., Dalkey, A., Montagne, D.E., Stull, J.K, Velarde, R.G. and Ranasinghe, J.A. (2001) Relationship between depth, sediment latitude and the structure of benthic infaunal assemblages on the mainland shelf of southern California. Marine Biology 138, 637–647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bianchi, G. (1991) Demersal assemblages of the continental shelf and slope edge between the Gulf of Tehuantepec (Mexico) and the Gulf of Papagayo (Costa Rica). Marine Ecology Progress Series 73, 121–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaber, S.J.M. and Blaber, T.G. (1981) The zoogeographical affinities of estuarine fishes in South-East Africa. South African Journal of Science 77, 305–307.Google Scholar
Coleman, N., Gason, A.S.H. and Poore, G.C.B. (1997) High species richness in the shallow marine waters of southeast Australia. Marine Ecology Progress Series 154, 17–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collie, J., Hall, S., Kaiser, M. and Poiner, I. (2000) A quantitative analysis of fishing impacts on shelf-sea benthos. Journal of Animal Ecology 69, 785–798.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Connell, J.H. (1978) Diversity in tropical rainforests and coral reefs. Science 199, 1302–1310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darnell, R.M. (1990) Mapping of the biological resources of the continental shelf. American Zoologist 30, 15–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dayton, P.K. (1994) Community landscape: scale and stability in hard bottom marine communities. In Giller, P.S., Hildrew, A.G. and Raffaelli, D. (eds) Aquatic ecology: scale, pattern and processes. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications, pp. 289–332.Google Scholar
Denslow, J. (1995) Disturbance and diversity in tropical rain forest: the density effect. Ecological Application 5, 962–968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Filonov, A.E., Tereshchenko, I.E., Monzon, C.O., González-Ruelas, M.E. and Godínez-Domínguez, E. (2000) Variabilidad estacional de los campos de temperatura y salinidad en la zona costera de los estados de Jalisco y Colima, México. Ciencias Marinas 26, 303–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godínez-Domínguez, E. (2003) Ecología de las asociaciones de macroinvertebrados bentónicos de fondos blandos del Pacífico central mexicano. PhD thesis. Universidad de A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain.Google Scholar
Godínez-Domínguez, E. and Freire, J. (2003) Information–theoretic approach for selection of spatial and temporal models of community organization. Marine Ecology Progress Series 253, 17–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gotelli, N.J. and Graves, G.R. (1996) Null models in ecology. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Gotelli, N.J. and Colwell, R.K. (2001) Quantifying biodiversity: procedures and pitfalls in the measurement and comparisons of species richness. Ecological Letters 4, 379–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gotelli, N.J. and Entsminger, G.L. (2001) EcoSim: Null models software for ecology. Version 7.0. Acquired Intelligence Inc. & Kesey-Bear. http://homepages.together.net/~gentsmin/ecosim.htmGoogle Scholar
Grassle, J.F. and Maciolek, N.J. (1992) Deep-sea species richness; regional and local diversity estimates from quantitative bottom samples. American Naturalist 139, 313–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J.S. (1994) Is deep-sea species diversity really so high? Species diversity of the Norwegian continental shelf. Marine Ecology Progress Series 112, 205–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J.S. (2002) Species richness of marine soft sediments. Marine Ecology Progress Series 244, 285–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J.S. (2003) Species richness of marine soft sediments. Marine Ecology Progress Series 244, 285–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J.S., Poore, G.C.B., Ugland, K.I., Wilson, R.S., Olsgard, F. and Johannessen, O. (1997) Coastal and deep-sea benthic diversities compared. Marine Ecology Progress Series 159, 97–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, S.J., Raffaelli, D. and Thrush, S.F. (1994) Patchiness and disturbance in shallow water benthic assemblages. In Giller, P.S., Hildrew, A.G. and Rafaelli, D. (eds) Aquatic ecology: scale, pattern and process. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications, pp. 333–376.Google Scholar
Hall, S.J. (1999) The effects of fishing on marine ecosystems and communities. Oxford: Blackwell Science.Google Scholar
He, F. and Legendre, P. (2002) Species diversity patterns derived from species–area models. Ecology 83, 1185–1198.Google Scholar
Hurlbert, S.M. (1971) The non-concept of species diversity: a critique and alternative parameters. Ecology 52, 577–586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, S. and Kaiser, M.J. (1998) The effects of fishing on marine ecosystems. Advances in Marine Biology 34, 203–314.Google Scholar
Kaiser, M. and Spencer, B. (1996) The effects of beam-trawl disturbance on infaunal communities in different habitats. Journal of Animal Ecology 65, 348–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, M.J., Armstrong, P.J., Dare, P.J. and Flatt, R.P. (1998) Benthic communities associated with a heavily fished scallop ground. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 78, 1045–1059.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, M.J. and de Groot, S.J.(eds) (2000) The effects of fishing on non-target species and habitats by trawling activities: biological, conservation and socio-economic issues. Oxford: Blackwell Science.Google Scholar
Kolasa, J. and Pickett, S.T.A. (1991) Ecological heterogeneity. New York: Springer Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Legendre, P. (1993) Spatial autocorrelation: trouble or new paradigm? Ecology 74, 1659–1673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, L.A., Etter, R.J., Rex, M.A., Gooday, A.J., Smith, C.R., Pineda, J., Stuart, C.T., Hessler, R.R. and Pawson, D. (2001) Environmental influences on regional deep-sea species diversity. Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics 32, 51–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longhurst, A.R. and Pauly, D. (1987) The ecology of tropical oceans. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Magurran, A.E. (1988) Ecological diversity and its measurement. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philander, S.G.H. (1999) A review of tropical ocean–atmosphere interactions. Tellus A–B 1, 79–90.Google Scholar
Pranovi, F., Raicevich, S., Franceschini, G., Farrace, M.G. and Giovanardi, O. (2000) Rapido trawling in the northern Adratic Sea: effects on benthic communities in an experimental area. ICES Journal of Marine Sciences 57, 517–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rex, M.A., Stuart, C.T., Hessler, R.R., Allen, J.A., Sanders, H.L. and Wilson, G.D.F. (1993) Global-scale latitudinal patterns of species diversity in the deep-sea benthos. Nature 365, 636–639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rex, M.A., Stuart, C.T. and Coyne, C. (2000) Latitudinal gradients of species richness in the deep-sea benthos of the North Atlantic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 97, 4082–4085.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenzweig, M.L. (1995) Species in space and time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sanchez, P., Demestre, M., Ramon, M. and Kaiser, M.J. (2000) The impact of otter trawling on mud communities in the Northwestern Mediterranean. ICES Journal of Marine Science 57, 1352–1358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sousa, W.P. (1984) Intertidal mosaics: patch size, propagule availability, and spatially variable patterns of succession. Ecology 65, 1918–1935.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thrush, S.F, Hewitt, J.E., Cummings, V.J., Dayton, P.K., Cryer, M., Turner, S.J., Funnell, G.A., Budd, R.G., Milburn, C.J. and Wilkinson, M.R. (1998) Disturbance of marine benthic habitat by commercial fishing impacts at the scale of the fishery. Ecological Applications 8, 866–879.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thrush, S.F., Hewitt, J.E., Funnell, G.A., Cummings, V.J., Ellis, J., Schultz, D., Tallet, D. and Norkko, A. (2001) Fishing disturbance and marine biodiversity: role of habitat structure in simple soft-sediments systems. Marine Ecology Progress Series 221, 255–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thrush, S.F. and Dayton, P.K. (2002) Disturbance to marine benthic habitats by trawling and dredging: implications for marine biodiversity. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 33, 449–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuck, I.D., Hall, S.J., Robertson, M.R., Armstrong, E. and Basford, D.J. (1998) Effects of physical trawling disturbance in a previously unfished sheltered Scottish sea-loch. Marine Ecology Progress Series 162, 227–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veale, L.O., Hill, A.S., Hawkins, S.J. and Brand, A.R. (2000) Effects of long-term physical disturbance by commercial scallop fishing on subtidal epifaunal assemblages and habitats. Marine Biology 137, 325–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washington, H.G. (1984) Diversity, biotic and similarity indices. Water Research 18, 653–694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wyrtki, K. (1965) Surface currents of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. Inter-American Tropical Tuna Comission Bulletin IX, 271–304.Google Scholar