THE STRUCTURE OF COASTAL ZOOBENTHOS COMMUNITIES AT DIFFERENT ORGANIC ENRICHMENT LEVELS IN SEDIMENTS (CRETE, THE AEGEAN SEA)
Keywords:
zoobenthos, community structure, organic enrichment of sediment, ecological indicators, multivariate statistical analysis, Isl. Crete, Aegean SeaAbstract
The comparative analysis of macrobenthos community on the upper shelf of Crete (the Aegean Sea) at the different organic enrichment levels of sediments (0.4 to 9.1 mg·g-1 TOC) is carried out. Applying algorithms of multivariate analysis, from the initial set of 18 physico-chemical parameters of soft-bottom environment, the combination of 4 key factors (depth, silt-clay content of sediments, Eh and TOC) that are mostly influencing upon quantitative distribution and species structure of zoobenthos along to integral organic enrichment gradient of soft-bottoms have been revealed. Based on the results of clustering and MDS ordination techniques all 77 sampled stations were grouped into 4 clusters, each of this is characterized by the certain rates of key environmental parameters. The quantitative distribution, species structure, diversity and rarefaction ES(n) indices for the all 4 clusters were comparatively evaluated for various groups of macrofauna considering the detected threshold TOC range (3 – 4 mg·g-1). Based on evaluation of variability of pairwise rank similarity coefficient (R) under comparison of macrofauna from conditionally oligotrophic vs. mesotrophic biotopes (regarding to the threshold level), the statistically significant differences in structural indices were obtained for polychaetes (R = 0.65) and for whole benthos (R = 0.61) (Р < 0.1 %). At the relatively low TOC ranges in sediments (1 – 4 mg·g-1), the structural indices of macrobenthos changed inconsistently along to ascending organic enrichment gradient, that is not agreed with the classical Pearson-Rosenberg model. The beginning of negative alterations in the benthic community were detected at the TOC range in sediments about 8 – 10 mg·g-1. Above this threshold level the abiotic factors providing main input into the integral organic enrichment gradient begin to bring the pronounced influence upon changes in the structural and conditional indices of benthic macrofauna.
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