An annotated checklist of macrozoobenthic species in German waters of the North and Baltic Seas

Abstract

The present compilation is the first attempt to generate a comprehensive list of all macrozoobenthic species recorded at least once in the German regions of the North Sea and Baltic Sea including non-indigenous species and freshwater species which occurred in brackish waters (estuaries, bays, fjords etc.). Based on the data of several research institutes and consultancies, the macrozoobenthic species inventory comprises a total of 1.866 species belonging to 16 phyla including 193 threatened species. The most common groups were: malacostracan crustaceans (21%), Polychaeta (19%), and Gastropoda (12%). Even though the two major marine regions are separated by only 50 km of land, the composition of the respective communities was different. The two seas shared only 36.6% of the recorded species which should have profound and far-reaching consequences for conservation purposes. Considering all macroinvertebrates listed 96 species, or the equivalent of 5.2%, were introduced mainly during the last two centuries. Both seas are heavily affected by human activities and are sensitive to climate change displayed by effects on the faunal compositions. The present checklist is an important step to document these changes scientifically and may act as a base for political and management decisions.

Morphological and molecular diagnostic species characters of Staurozoa (Cnidaria) collected on the coast of Helgoland (German Bight, North Sea)

“…Promotion of the group, including increasing records and monitoring efforts, could support the conservation of staurozoan species (Miranda et al 2018). Two of the three staurozoan species collected on Helgoland for present investigations, Haliclystus auricula Clark, 1863 and Craterolophus convolvulus (Johnston, 1835), were previously reported for Helgoland in the last decades (Boos et al 2004;Reichert and Buchholz 2006;Zettler et al 2018). The specimens of Haliclystus tenuis Kishinouye 1910, collected on Helgoland in 2010, represent the first record of the species in Atlantic waters (Holst and Laakmann 2019).…”

Coming and going – Historical distributions of the European oyster Ostrea edulis Linnaeus, 1758 and the introduced slipper limpet Crepidula fornicata Linnaeus, 1758 in the North Sea

“…Because of these new findings, we support the results of habitat controls that conclude that O . edulis is found very rarely and is threatened by extinction rather than being extinct [49,50].…”

Interregional comparison of benthic ecosystem functioning: Community bioturbation potential in four regions along the NE Atlantic shelf

“…Temperature, sediment and depth are the most important environmental parameters shaping the spatial and temporal distribution of the macrofauna communities (Callaway et al, 2002;Van Hoey et al 2004). The Dogger Bank, located at the tip of the German EEZ, represents a natural border between the deeper parts of the central North Sea and the shallower German Bight and therefore also acts as a transition zone of habitats dominated by southerly and northerly distributed species (Zettler et al, 2018).…”