Ecology and diversity of Mediterranean hard-bottom Syllidae (Annelida): a community-level approach

Abstract

The Syllidae are geographically widespread polychaetes, particularly diverse and abundant on marine hard bottoms and in seagrass meadows. Hydrodynamics, habitat complexity and biological traits are hypothesized to influence syllid bathymetric distribution. Little is known about the consistency of, or variation in, horizontal distribution patterns with varying depth. I analyzed hard-bottom Syllidae at 2 depths (1.5 and 5 m) at the scale of 1000s of metres, located around the Torre Guaceto marine protected area (MPA) (SE Italy) in order to (1) quantify syllid diversity and abundance, (2) describe their distribution pattern and (3) identify potentially important factors influencing their distribution. The Syllidae were dominant and highly diverse, and new biogeographic records were reported. Horizontal distribution patterns changed with depth, being more variable at 1.5 than 5 m. The presence of the MPA had little effect on alongshore variation in individual species abundance and assemblage structure. Contrary to expectations, there was no consistent relationship between Syllidae distribution and habitat-forming algal species. In contrast, syllid abundance varied with that of other invertebrates, suggesting that future research should focus on the role of interspecific interactions in syllid ecology. Syllidae are a highly diversified and widespread taxon that deserves special attention when analyzing biodiversity patterns of hard-bottom benthic communities.

Distribution and functional traits of polychaetes in a CO2 vent system: winners and losers among closely related species

“…Results for the motile non-calcifying Syllidae are intriguing. Syllids deserve special attention when analyzing biodiversity patterns of hardbottom benthic communities due to their impressive diversity and abundance (Musco 2012). This is also the case for the rocky reefs in our study area: almost 50% of the dominant species belonged to the syllid subfamilies Exogoninae and Syllinae.…”

“…m −2 and 90.1%, respectively (L. Musco unpubl. data), an impressive density considering that Syllidae may represent over 20% of the macrofaunal abundance in pristine conditions (Musco 2012). These 2 species are omnivorous and reportedly feed on similar items (Giangrande et al 2000), suggesting they may interact or even compete.…”

Distribution patterns of shallow water polychaetes (Annelida) along the Alexandria coast, Egypt (eastern Mediterranean)

“…Polychaetes showing remarkable abundance, species richness and functional diversity are dominant in marine benthic communities of both soft and hard bottoms (Knox, 1977;Çinar et al, 2006;Musco, 2012). Due to high levels of adaptation to a wide variety of environmental conditions, polychaetes play key roles in ecosystem functioning and they have been used successfully as surrogates for the estimation of diversity and dynamics of benthic communities (Olsgard et al, 2003;Giangrande et al, 2004;Papageorgiou et al, 2006).…”

Reducing the data-deficiency of threatened European habitats: Spatial variation of sabellariid worm reefs and associated fauna in the Sicily Channel, Mediterranean Sea

“…All the sampled locations, in particular, presented sabellariid reefs interspersed within a predominant sandy bottom, but these were close to a P. oceanica meadow at Triscina and to a breakwater rocky barrier at Donnalucata, i.e., markedly different habitats that are likely to provide different pools of colonizers to adjacent Sabellaria-associated assemblages. For example, shallow hard substrates in the Mediterranean Sea are reported to host diverse and abundant assemblages of syllid polychaetes (Chatzigeorgiou et al, 2012;Musco, 2012;Dorgham et al, 2014), a feature that could have contributed to the larger abundance of S. pulvinata, the most numerous syllid in this study, at Donnalucata compared to Triscina. Concomitantly, significant among-locations variation in the distribution of reefassociated fauna could also be driven by patterns of dispersal of organisms varying over the same scale (e.g., Johnson et al, 2001;Fraschetti et al, 2005b).…”