Spotlight on coarse sediments: Comparative characterization of a poorly investigated seafloor biotope in the German Bight (SE North Sea)

التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: Spotlight on coarse sediments: Comparative characterization of a poorly investigated seafloor biotope in the German Bight (SE North Sea)
المؤلفون: Lars Gutow, Manuela Gusky, Jan Beermann, Luis Gimenez, Roland Pesch, Tim Bildstein, Kathrin Heinicke, Brigitte Ebbe
المصدر: EPIC3Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science, ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 275, pp. 107996, ISSN: 0272-7714
بيانات النشر: Elsevier BV, 2022.
سنة النشر: 2022
مصطلحات موضوعية: Aquatic Science, Oceanography
الوصف: Extensive marine benthos surveys have resulted in a solid understanding of the broad distribution pattern of seafloor biotopes in the southeastern North Sea (temperate northeast Atlantic region). However, due to the low spatial resolution of large-scale surveys, specific smaller-scale biotopes with scattered distribution have been insufficiently captured. Consequently, knowledge regarding the environmental characteristics and species inventories of some specific biotopes is still limited. We investigated the habitat characteristics and the macroinfauna (i.e., organisms in samples collected by a sediment grab and retained in a sieve with a mesh size of 1000 μm) of a spatially restricted, patchy coarse sediment (i.e., grain size fraction >500 μm accounting for ≥60% of the total sample mass) biotope in the German Bight over three consecutive years. Habitat and faunal characteristics were contrasted with four other benthic biotopes sampled at the same time to allow for a comparative evaluation. Our study revealed considerable fluctuations in grain size distribution among samples of the coarse sediment, potentially resulting from a frequent redistribution of sediments. A total number of 243 infauna taxa were identified at the 66 stations sampled over three consecutive years (16–33 stations per year) with a considerable proportion of endangered and rare species. The results highlight that previous studies have underestimated the species richness of the biotope. The focus on this previously poorly studied biotope type allowed us to detect species in the study region that were formerly unreported. The macro-infauna in the coarse sediments was characterized by comparatively high abundance and biomass, which may provide a rich food resource for organisms from higher trophic levels. Therefore, coarse sediments likely are an ecologically valuable seafloor biotope despite its limited coverage.
وصف الملف: application/pdf
تدمد: 0272-7714
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecss.2022.107996
URL الوصول: https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_dedup___::c307d1bbc2f5ea395174dee6500cf1b5
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2022.107996
Rights: OPEN
رقم الانضمام: edsair.doi.dedup.....c307d1bbc2f5ea395174dee6500cf1b5
قاعدة البيانات: OpenAIRE
الوصف
تدمد:02727714
DOI:10.1016/j.ecss.2022.107996