Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:52:44.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spatial patterns of meiofauna and diversity of nematode species assemblages in the Uvea lagoon (Loyalty Islands, South Pacific)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2008

Y. Guo ,
M.-N. Helleouet  and
G. Boucher
Y. Guo
Affiliation:
The Key Laboratory of Science and Technology for Aquaculture and Food Safety, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, People's Republic of China UMR CNRS 5178-USM0401, DMPA, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 61 Rue Buffon, 75231 Paris Cedex 05
M.-N. Helleouet
Affiliation:
UMR CNRS 5178-USM0401, DMPA, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 61 Rue Buffon, 75231 Paris Cedex 05
G. Boucher*
Affiliation:
UMR CNRS 5178-USM0401, DMPA, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 61 Rue Buffon, 75231 Paris Cedex 05
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: G. Boucher UMR CNRS 5178-USM0401 DMPA, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle 61 Rue Buffon, 75231 Paris Cedex 05 email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Meiofauna assemblages were investigated at 15 stations on triplicated samples in the Uvea Atoll (Loyalty Islands) in relation to 9 selected environmental parameters. Spatial patterns and variability of meiofauna density were quantified according to location, macrofauna and nematode species assemblages. Meiofauna was dominated by ciliates and nematodes. Densities of total meiofauna and of most of the meiofauna taxa were significantly higher in the back reef North Pléiades stations than the leeward side of the Island. The highest correlation between biotic patterns and environmental parameters that best explains the pattern was with sediment thickness and to a lesser extent organic matter, C/N ratio and depth. One hundred and thirty-four nematode species were identified with four dominant species Chromadora macrolaimoides, an undescribed species of Bolbonema, Daptonema svalbardense and Prochromadorella septempapillata. Three significantly different nematode species assemblages were detected in two of the previously described macrofauna assemblages by cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling methods suggesting that nematodes are more sensible ecological indicators than macrofauna. Diversity indices based on dominance were not significantly different among the three nematode species assemblages but indices based on species richness and rarefaction were significantly higher leeward of Uvea Island. Estimates of total species richness showed no sign of stabilizing with sample size. However, rare species stabilized very quickly, whereas abundant species were added with increasing sampling coverage, indicating a high spatial variability of the local composition of nematodes.

Keywords

meiofaunamarine nematodesspecies assemblagesspatial heterogeneityecological indicatorsdiversityUvea Atollsouth-west Pacific
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 88 , Issue 5 , August 2008 , pp. 931 - 940
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

Alongi, D.M. (1986) Population structure and trophic composition of the free-living nematodes inhabiting carbonate sands of Davies Reef, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 37, 609–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alongi, D.M. (1989a) Ecology of tropical soft-bottom benthos: a review with emphasis on emerging concepts. Revue Biologia Tropicana 37, 85–100.Google Scholar
Alongi, D.M. (1989b) The role of soft-bottom benthic communities in tropical mangrove and coral reef ecosystems. Aquatic Sciences 1, 243–280.Google Scholar
Boucher, G. (1997) Biodiversity of nematode species assemblages in the SW lagoon of New Caledonia. Coral Reefs 16, 177–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boucher, G. and Gourbault, N. (1990) Subtidal meiofauna and diversity of marine nematode assemblages off Guadaloupe Islands French West Indies. Bulletin of Marine Science 47, 448–463.Google Scholar
Chardy, P., Chevillon, C. and Clavier, J. (1988) Major benthic communities of the South-West lagoon of New Caledonia. Coral Reefs 7, 69–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chardy, P. and Clavier, J. (1988) Biomass and trophic structure of the macrobenthos in the south-west lagoon of New Caledonia. Marine Biology 99, 195–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chevallier, J.-P., Denizot, M., Plessis, Y. and Salvat, B. (1968) Etude géomorphologique et bionomique de l'atoll de Mururoa Tuamotu. Cahiers du Pacifique 12, 1–144.Google Scholar
Chevillon, C., Clavier, J. and Garrigue, C. (1992) Preliminary data on the sediments of the Uvea lagoon New Caledonia. In Proceedings of the 7th International Coral Reef Symposium, Guam 2, 1115–1120.Google Scholar
Clarke, K.R. (1993) Non-parametric multivariate analysis of changes in community structure. Australian Journal of Ecology 18, 117–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, K.R. and Ainsworth, M. (1993) A method of linking multivariate community structure to environmental variables. Marine Ecology Progress Series 92, 205–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, K.R. and Warwick, R.M. (1994) Similarity-based testing for community pattern: the two-way layout with no replication. Marine Biology 118, 167–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clavier, J., Boucher, G., Bonnet, S., Di Matteo, S., Gérard, P. and Laboute, P. (1990) Métabolisme aérobie du benthos et flux d'azote à l'interface ear–sédiment dans le lagon sud-ouest de Nouvelle-Calédonie. Méthodes et Recueil de Données. Rapports Scientifiques et Techniques, Sciences de la Mer, Biologie Marine 54, ORSTOM ed. Centre de Nouméa, pp. 1–35.Google Scholar
Colin, P.L. (1987) Subtidal environments and ecology of Enewetak atoll. Part 1: the ecosystem: environments, biotas and processes. In Devarney, D.M., Reese, E.S., Purch, B.L. and Helfrich, P. (eds) The natural history of Enewetak atoll. Washington, DC: US Department of Energy, pp. 91–138.Google Scholar
Colwell, R.K. and Coddington, J.A. (1994) Estimating terrestrial biodiversity through extrapolation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, Series B 345, 1001–118.Google ScholarPubMed
Dale, V.H. and Beyeler, S.C. (2001) Challenges in the development and use of ecological indicators. Ecological Indicators 11, 3–10.Google Scholar
Garrigue, C., Clavier, J. and Chevillon, C. (1998) Investigations on the soft bottom benthos in a southwest Pacific atoll lagoon Uvea, New Caledonia. Atoll Research Bulletin 452, 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gourbault, N. and Renaud-Mornant, J. (1990) Micro-meiofaunal community structure and nematode diversity in a lagoonal ecosystem Fangataufa, Eastern Tuamotu Archipelago. PSZNI: Marine Ecology 11, 173–189.Google Scholar
Hanski, I., Kouki, J. and Halkka, A. (1993) Three explanations of the positive relationship between distribution and abundance of species. In Ricklefs, R. and Schluter, D. (eds) Historical and geographic determinants of community diversity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 108–116.Google Scholar
Hill, M.O. (1973) Diversity and evenness: a unifying notation and its consequences. Ecology 542, 427–432.Google Scholar
Intes, A. and Caillart, B. (1994) An atoll of the Tuamotu archipelago French Polynesia. Environment and biota of the Tikehau atoll Tuamotu archipelago, French Polynesia. Atoll Research Bulletin 415, 1–34.Google Scholar
Jones, G.P., Ferell, D.G. and Sale, P.F. (1990) Spatial pattern in the abundance and structure of molluscs populations in the soft sediments of a coral reef lagoon. Marine Ecology Progress Series 62, 109–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotta, J. and Boucher, G. (2001) Interregional variation of free-living nematode assemblages in tropical coral sands. Cahiers de Biologie Marine 42, 315–326.Google Scholar
Kulbicki, M. (1995) The marine ressources of Uvea Atoll, New Caledonia: a summary of the work performed by ORSTOM from 1991 to 1994. In Dalzell, P. and Adams, T.J.H. (eds) Workshop on the management of South Pacific inshore fisheries, South Pacific Commission, Noumea, New Caledonia 2, 613–652. South Pacific Commission and Forum Fisheries Agency.Google Scholar
Lorenzen, C.J. (1967) Determination of chlorophyll and pheopigments: spectrophotometric equations. Limnology and Oceanography 12, 343–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Motoda, S. (1959) Devices of simple plankton apparatus. Memoirs of the Faculty of Fisheries, Hokkaido University, Japan 7, 73–94.Google Scholar
Netto, S.A., Warwick, R.M. and Attrill, M.J. (1999) Meiobenthic and macrobenthic community structure in carbonate sediments of Rocas Atoll north-east Brazil. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 48, 39–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Platt, H.M. and Warwick, R.M. (1988) Free living marine nematodes. Part II British Chromadorids. In Kermack, D.M. and Barnes, R.S.K (eds) Synopses of the British Fauna: New Series, No. 38, 502 pp.Google Scholar
Rice, A.L. and Lambshead, J.D. (1994) Patch dynamics in the deep-sea benthos: the role of a heterogeneous supply of organic matter. In Giller, P.S., Hildrew, A.G. and Raffaeli, D. (eds) Aquatic ecology: scale, pattern and process. 34th Symposium of the British Ecological Society. Oxford: Blockwell Scientific Publications, pp. 469–499.Google Scholar
Schlacher, T.A.S., Newell, P., Clavier, J., Schlacher-Hoenlinger, M.A., Chevillon, C. and Britton, J. (1998) Soft-sediment benthic community structure in a coral reef lagoon—the prominence of spatial heterogeneity and spot-endemism. Marine Ecology Progress Series 174, 159–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tietjen, J.H. (1991) Ecology of free-living nematodes from the continental shelf of the central Great Barrier province. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 32, 421–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wieser, W. (1953) Die Beziehung Zwischen Mundhöhlengestalt, Ernährungsweise und Vorkommen bei feilebenden marinen Nematoden. Arkiv für Zoology 24, 439–484.Google Scholar