RT Journal Article
T1 Effects of habitat homogenisation on assemblages associated with mussel clumps
A1 Veiga, Puri
A1 Moreira, Juan
A1 Sampaio, Leandro
A1 Souza Troncoso, Jesús
A1 Rubal, Marcos
K1 2401.06 Ecología Animal
K1 2401.19 Zoología Marina
K1 2417.13 Ecología Vegetal
AB Biodiversity loss is considered one of the main threats to marine ecosystems. In this framework of biodiversity decline, organisms that provide biogenic habitat play a relevant role by their capacity to structure assemblages and influence ecological processes. The Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis is considered an ecosystem engineer because it alters local environmental conditions maintaining habitat suitability for other organisms, and enhancing local biodiversity. Although it is widely recognized that mussel beds increase diversity, the drivers shaping these assemblages are poorly explored. We investigate whether mussel size homogenisation shapes the abundance, richness and structure of macrobenthic assemblages associated with mussel beds in two shores of the Galician coast (NW Spain). At each shore, two sites, 10 m apart, were selected and at each site, faunal assemblages were compared between mussel clumps showing shells of various sizes (control), and mussel clumps with closely similar-sized mussels, considered as homogenised. Homogenised clumps showed, in general, higher values in total number of individuals and species than control clumps. Regarding the effect of mussel size homogenisation on the multivariate structure of the assemblages, significant differences between control and homogenised clumps were found in three out of the four sites. Most relevant associated species usually reached higher abundances in homogenised clumps than control ones. Therefore, mussel size homogenisation influenced the structure of the macrofaunal assemblages associated with mussel beds but, its effect was context dependent (i.e., varied with sites). Information about the species contribution to dissimilarities among homogenised and control clumps was provided and the potential influence of sediment and algae on mussel clumps was discussed
PB PLoS ONE
SN 19326203
YR 2022
FD 2022-06-01
LK http://hdl.handle.net/11093/4522
UL http://hdl.handle.net/11093/4522
LA eng
NO PLoS ONE, 17(6): e0269308 (2022)
NO COMPETE 2020, FEDER | Ref. PTDC/CTA-AMB/30181/2017, n. 30181
DS Investigo
RD 11-dic-2024