Long-term temporal and spatial variation of macrobenthos in the intertidal soft-bottom flats of two small bights (Chupa Inlet, Kandalaksha Bay, White Sea)

Abstract

Despite the dynamic nature of spatial pattern, the temporal variation of spatial structure of marine benthic assemblages is rarely assessed using several temporal scales. We quantified the variability of density and biomass of main benthic species in the intertidal soft-bottom flats at two bights in Chupa Inlet (Kandalaksha Bay, the White Sea). The data cover the 21-year period (1987-2008) of a long-term monitoring survey (1987-present) using a hierarchical sampling design with two temporal (year, season within a year) and three spatial scales (bights-7 km, stations within a bight-10-100 m, and replicate samples-10 s cm apart). We used nested ANOVA to test significance and variance components to compare the relative contribution of different scales of variability of density and biomass of 18 most occurring macrobenthic species. Some species demonstrated high large-scale variability, however, the majority showed high smallscale variability and residual variance. The interactive variability was at least as important as the temporal effects, indicating that the spatial pattern changes through time. The assemblages were more variable at small scales and more stable at larger scales. Potential implications for sampling design are discussed.

Abundance distribution patterns of intertidal bivalvesMacoma balthicaandCerastoderma eduleat the Murman coast tidal flats (the Barents Sea)

“…At Western Murman and in Kola Inlet clam densities were comparable with their densities in the White Sea, in the Baltic Sea and in the nearest waters – the northern part of the Norwegian Sea (e.g. Semenova, 1974; Aschan, 1988; Boström & Bonsdorf, 2000; Oug, 2001; Gerasimova & Maximovich, 2013; Rousi et al , 2013; Varfolomeeva & Naumov, 2013). Values of mean M. balthica abundances similar to the Eastern Murman were typical to the southern part of the Norwegian Sea and the Wadden Sea (Sneli, 1968; Beukema, 1976; Jensen & Jensen, 1985; Reise et al , 1994) (Figure 5A).…”

Functional uniformity underlies the common spatial structure of macrofaunal assemblages in intertidal seagrass beds

“…Small‐scale spatial variation of macrobenthic assemblage composition, structure and abundance is a well known phenomenon in shallow‐water marine soft sediments (Morrisey et al ., ; Chapman, ; Paiva, ; Varfolomeeva & Naumov, ; etc.). Patchy distribution and abundance of the component taxa and consequent spatial variation in assemblage composition seem universal.…”

Do bioturbation and consumption affect coastal Arctic marine soft-bottom communities?

“…This is quite high compared to many other shallow soft-bottom ecosystems from tropical to boreal regions, where mean density ranges from 1000 to 20,000 ind. m -2 (Lackschewitz and Reise 1998;Dittmann and Vargas 2001;Michaelis and Wolff 2001;Varfolomeeva and Naumov 2013). In our investigation, the high abundance of short-living organisms in the upper sediment layer area implies a high natural mortality rate leading to plentiful carcasses of relatively small organisms at the bottom (Legezynska et al 2000).…”

“…Thus, it remains unclear whether the absence of juvenile lugworms was due to unknown breeding areas or to sporadic recruitment events, which may not occur every year. High inter-annual variations in recruitment success are generally observed in multiyear-living soft-bottom invertebrates of higher latitudes (Varfolomeeva and Naumov 2013). Although the reason for this variability is often unknown, especially post-settlement factors such as winter mortality of juveniles seem to play a major role (Maximovich and Guerassimova 2003;Strasser et al 2003;Yakovis et al 2013).…”