STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MACROZOOBENTHOS OF THE DANUBE NEARSHORE AREA (UKRAINIAN SHELF)
Keywords:
structural and functional organization, communities, macrozoobenthos, Danube nearshore area, Ukrainian shelfAbstract
Data on the structural and functional organization of macrozoobenthos communities in the Ukrainian sector of the Danube nearshore area are presented based on research conducted between 2004 and 2021. Over this period, a total of 82 macrozoobenthos taxa were recorded, belonging to 7 phyla: Cnidaria (2 species), Platyhelminthes (lower taxa were not identified), Nemertea (lower taxa were not identified), Annelida (21 species of the class Polychaeta; members of the class Clitellata were not identified to lower taxa), Phoronida (1 species), Mollusca (25 species), and Arthropoda (31 species).
According to the frequency of occurrence, the following species were classified as constant: the polychaetes Heteromastus filiformis (80.8%), Alitta succinea (70.4%), Nephtys hombergii (52.6%), Polydora cornuta (51.9%), and the bivalve mollusks Anadara kagoshimensis (56.7%) and Mya arenaria (52.2%). The average abundance of macrofauna during the study period was 2824±292 ind.∙m⁻², and the biomass was 214.9±30.4 g∙m⁻². In terms of abundance, the region was dominated by annelids (Annelida, 54.6%), while mollusks (Mollusca, 91.1%) prevailed in terms of biomass. Among individual species, H. filiformis (23.6%) and Lentidium mediterraneum (22.3%) dominated by abundance, whereas A. kagoshimensis (34.9%), M. arenaria (24.5%), and Mytilus galloprovincialis (23.5%) dominated by biomass. It was found that the highest abundance values are characteristic of stations near the Danube Delta at depths up to 15 m, while biomass values showed an aggregated distribution pattern.
The biodiversity of the area was characterized by relatively low values: the number of taxa per station ranged from 1 to 22, and the Shannon index (H’log2) varied from 0.03 to 3.27 bit∙ind.⁻¹, demonstrating a gradual increase from the edge of the delta toward the open sea. The trophic structure of the macrozoobenthos in the Danube nearshore area consisted of six groups: predators, deposit feeders, suspension feeders, herbivores, polyphages, and plant-detritus feeders. Deposit feeders dominated in terms of the number of taxa and abundance (43.9% and 58.9%, respectively), while suspension feeders dominated in terms of biomass (88.4%). It was established that the highest density of deposit feeders is characteristic of depths between 10 and 20 m, whereas suspension feeders prevailed in abundance at depths up to 15 m and dominated in biomass throughout the entire studied range (up to 25.4 m).
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