Hostname: page-component-669899f699-g7b4s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-25T04:44:15.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assessment of anthropogenic disturbance on soft-bottom macroinvertebrate assemblages across different spatial scales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2011

Roberto Bedini ,
Francesca Batistini ,
Annalisa Nannelli  and
Luigi Piazzi
Roberto Bedini*
Affiliation:
Istituto di Biologia ed Ecologia Marina, Piazza G. Bovio 4, 57025 Piombino, Italy
Francesca Batistini
Affiliation:
Istituto di Biologia ed Ecologia Marina, Piazza G. Bovio 4, 57025 Piombino, Italy
Annalisa Nannelli
Affiliation:
Istituto di Biologia ed Ecologia Marina, Piazza G. Bovio 4, 57025 Piombino, Italy
Luigi Piazzi
Affiliation:
Istituto di Biologia ed Ecologia Marina, Piazza G. Bovio 4, 57025 Piombino, Italy
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: R. Bedini, Istituto di Biologia ed Ecologia Marina, Piazza G. Bovio 4, 57025 Piombino, Italy email: bedini@biomare.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The present study aimed at evaluating the influence of different gradients of disturbance on the structure of soft-bottom macroinvertebrate assemblages. The following hypotheses were tested: (i) the structure of benthic assemblages does not differ along a gradient of distance from a point-source of pollution; and (ii) this pattern was not influenced by the level of anthropogenic pressure that characterized the area. A combination of multivariate and univariate techniques was used to detect differences in the structure of assemblages among three areas characterized by different environmental conditions, among three distances from point sources of pollution within each area and in two different periods within one year. Differences among conditions in the structure of macroinvertebrate assemblages were evident independently from temporal changes. However, patterns of variability along gradients of disturbance were influenced by the environmental conditions of the studied areas. The total richness was similar in the three studied areas, while beta diversity showed patterns related to both area and distance from point sources of pollution. The results also underlined the suitability of multivariate analysis of the whole community to detect environmental changes.

Keywords

macroinvertebratesMediterranean Seapollutionsoft-bottomalpha and beta diversityspatial scales
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 92 , Issue 3 , May 2012 , pp. 439 - 448
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2011

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, M.J. (2001) A new method for non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance. Austral Ecology 26, 32–46.Google Scholar
Bachelet, G., de Montaudouin, X., Auby, I. and Labourg, P.J. (2000) Seasonal changes in macrophyte and macrozoobenthos assemblages in three coastal lagoons under varying degrees of eutrophication. ICES Journal of Marine Science 57, 1495–1506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balata, D., Piazzi, L. and Cinelli, F. (2007) Increase of sedimentation in a subtidal system: effects on the structure and diversity of macroalgal assemblages. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 351, 73–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bedini, R., Canali, M.G. and Cappagli, M. (2003) Analysis of macrobenthic community structure in relation to different environmental conditions in three harbors in the North Tyrrhenian Sea (Italy). Preliminary study. Mediterranean Marine Science 4, 83–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bedini, R., Frassinetti, S., Lampugnani, L., Nannelli, A., Batistini, F. and Sbrilli, G. (in press) Indagine preliminare sugli scarichi a mare del Golfo di Follonica. In Proceedings of 3th International Symposium ‘Il Monitoraggio Costiero Mediterraneo: problematiche e tecniche di misura’, Livorno 15–17 Giugno 2010, in press.Google Scholar
Bonsdorff, E. and Pearson, T.H. (1999) Variation in the sublittoral macrozoobenthos of the Baltic Sea along environmental gradients: a functional group approach. Australian Journal of Ecology 24, 312–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borja, A., Franco, J. and Perez, V. (2000) A marine biotic index to establish the ecological quality of soft-bottom benthos within European estuaries and coastal environments. Marine Pollution Bulletin 40, 1100–1114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calabretta, C.J. and Oviatt, C.A. (2008) The response of benthic macrofauna to anthropogenic stress in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island: a review of human stressors and assessment of community conditions. Marine Pollution Bulletin 56, 1680–1695.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carvalho, S., Barata, M., Pereira, F., Pousão-Ferreira, P., Cancela da Fonseca, L. and Gaspar, M.B. (2010) Can macrobenthic communities be used in the assessment of environmental quality of fish earthen ponds? Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 90, 135–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, M.G., Underwood, A.J. and Skilleter, G.A. (1995) Variability at different spatial scales between a subtidal assemblage exposed to the discharge of sewage and two control assemblages. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 189, 103–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chou, L.M., Yu, J.Y. and Loh, T.L. (2004) Impacts of sedimentation on soft-bottom benthic communities in the southern islands of Singapore. Hydrobiologia 515, 91–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, K.R. (1993) Non-parametric multivariate analyses of changes in community structure. Australian Journal of Ecology 18, 117–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cognetti, G. (1978) On some aspects of the ecology of the benthic littoral polychaetes. Italian Journal of Zoology 45, 145–154.Google Scholar
Cognetti, G. and Maltagliati, F. (2000) Biodiversity and adaptive mechanisms in brackish water fauna. Marine Pollution Bulletin 40, 7–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dauer, D.M. (1993) Biological criteria, environmental health and estuarine macrobenthic community structure. Marine Pollution Bulletin 26, 249–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, H.K. (2008) The use of polychaetes (Annelida) as indicator species of marine pollution: a review. Revista de Ecologia Tropical 56, 11–38.Google Scholar
Denisenko, N.V. (2009) Composition and distribution of sublittoral zoobenthos in Kemskaya Bay of the White Sea. Oceanology 49, 788–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doğan, A., Çinar, ME., Önen, M., Ergen, Z. and Katağan, T. (2005) Seasonal dynamics of soft bottom zoobenthic communities in polluted and unpolluted areas of Izmir Bay (Aegean Sea). Senckenbergiana Maritima 35, 133–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellingsen, K.E. (2001) Biodiversity of a continental shelf soft-sediment macrobenthos community. Marine Ecology Progress Series 218, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gambi, M.C. and Giangrande, A. (1986) Distribution of soft-bottom polychaetes in two coastal areas of the Tyrrhenian Sea (Italy): structural analysis. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 23, 847–862.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gambi, M.C., Conti, G. and Bremec, C.S. (1998) Polychaete distribution, diversity and seasonality related to seagrass cover in shallow soft bottoms of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Scientia Marina 62, 1–17.Google Scholar
Godínez-Domínguez, E., Freire, J., Franco-Gordo, C. and González-Sansón, G. (2009) Decomposing diversity patterns of a soft-bottom macroinvertebrate community in the tropical eastern Pacific. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 89, 31–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J.S. (1997) Marine biodiversity: patterns, threats and conservation needs. Biodiversity and Conservation 6, 153–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J.S. (2000) The measurement of marine species diversity, with an application to the benthic fauna of the Norwegian continental shelf. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 250, 23–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J.S., Wu, R.S.S. and Or, Y.Y. (2002) Effects of hypoxia and organic enrichment on the coastal marine environment. Marine Ecology Progress Series 238, 249–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harkantra, S.N. and Rodrigues, N.R. (2004) Numerical analyses of soft bottom macroinvertebrates to diagnose the pollution in tropical coastal waters. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 93, 251–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hewitt, J.E., Thrush, S.E. and Cummings, V.J. (2001) Assessing environmental impacts: effects of spatial and temporal variability at likely impact scales. Ecological Applications 11, 1502–1516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Junoy, J., Castellanos, C., Viéitez, J.M., de la Huz, M.R. and Lastra, M. (2005) The macroinfauna of the Galician sandy beaches (NW Spain) affected by the Prestige oil-spill. Marine Pollution Bulletin 50, 526–536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karlson, K., Rosenberg, R. and Bondsorff, E. (2002) Temporal and spatial large-scale effects of eutrophication and oxygen deficiency on benthic fauna in Scandinavian and Baltic waters—a review. Oceanography and Marine Biology: an Annual Review 40, 427–489.Google Scholar
Lardicci, C., Rossi, F. and Maltagliati, F. (1999) Detection of thermal pollution: variability of benthic communities at two different spatial scales in an area influenced by a coastal power station. Marine Pollution Bulletin 38, 296–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, L. and Wu, R.S.S. (2007) Seasonal effects on recolonization of macrobenthos in defaunated sediment: a series of field experiments. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 351, 199–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marin-Guirao, L., Cesar, A., Marin, A., Lloret, J. and Vita, R. (2005) Establishing the ecological quality status of soft-bottom mining-impacted coastal water bodies in the scope of the Water Framework Directive. Marine Pollution Bulletin 50, 374–387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKinney, M.L. and Lockwood, J.L. (1999) Biotic homogenization: a few winners replacing many losers in the next mass extinction. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 14, 450–453.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olden, J.D., Poff, N.L., Douglas, M.R., Douglas, M.E. and Fausch, K.D. (2004) Ecological and evolutionary consequences of biotic homogenization. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19, 18–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perus, J., Bonsdorff, E., Bäck, S., Lax, H.G., Villnäs, A. and Westberg, V. (2007) Zoobenthos as indicators of ecological status in coastal brackish waters: a comparative study from the Baltic Sea. Ambio 36, 250–256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raimondi, P.T. and Reed, C.D. (1996) Determining the spatial extent of ecological impacts caused by local anthropogenic disturbances in coastal marine habitats. In Schmitt, J.R. and Osenberg, C.W. (eds) Detecting ecological impacts: concepts and applications in coastal habitats. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, pp. 179–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, R., Nilsson, H.C. and Diaz, R.J. (2001) Response of benthic fauna and changing sediment redox profiles over a hypoxic gradient. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 53, 343–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, R. and Nilsson, H.C. (2005) Deterioration of soft-bottom benthos along the Swedish Skagerrak coast. Journal of Sea Research 54, 231–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teixeira, H., Magalhães Neto, J., Patrício, J., Veríssimo, H., Pinto, R., Salas, F. and Marques, J.C. (2009) Quality assessment of benthic macroinvertebrates under the scope of WFD using BAT, the Benthic Assessment Tool. Marine Pollution Bulletin 58, 1477–86CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Terlizzi, A., Benedetti-Cecchi, L., Beviliacqua, S., Fraschetti, S., Guidetti, P. and Anderson, M.J. (2005) Multivariate and univariate asymmetrical analyses in environmental impact assessment: a case study of Mediterranean subtidal sessile assemblages. Marine Ecology Progress Series 289, 27–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Underwood, A.J. (1997) Experiments in ecology. Their logical design and interpretation using analysis of variance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Underwood, A.J. (2000) Importance of experimental design in detecting and measuring stresses in marine populations. Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Stress and Recovery 7, 3–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ysebaert, T. and Herman, P.M.J. (2002) Spatial and temporal variation in benthic macrofauna and relationships with environmental variables in an estuarine, intertidal soft sediment environment. Marine Ecology Progress Series 244, 105–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valiela, I., Foreman, K.LaMontagne, M., Hersh, D., Costa, J., Peckol, P., DeMeo-Anderson, B., d'Avanzo, C., Babione, M., Sham, C.H., Brawley, J. and Lajtha, K. (1992) Couplings of watersheds and coastal waters: sources and consequences of nutrient enrichment in Waquoit Bay, Massachusetts. Estuaries 15, 443–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zmarzly, D.L., Stebbins, T.D., Pasko, D., Dugga, R.M and Barwick, K.L. (1994) Spatial patterns and temporal succession in soft-bottom macroinvertebrate assemblages surrounding an ocean outfall on the southern San-Diego shelf: relation to anthropogenic and natural events. Marine Biology 118, 293–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar