Polychaetes and oligochaetes associated with intertidal rocky shores in a semi-enclosed industrial and urban embayment, with the description of two new species

Abstract

The species composition and relative abundance of the annelid benthic macrofauna (Polychaeta and Oligochaeta) inhabiting the rocky intertidal zone of the ria of Ferrol (Galicia, NW Spain) were studied during Weld collections, from 2000 to 2002. A total of 14,619 specimens (11,585 polychaetes belonging to 76 species and 24 families and 3,034 oligochaetes belonging to 18 species and two families) were collected from 98 quantitative samples taken from 13 sampling sites. The general spatial distribution of the annelid fauna reXects an increase of the diversity from the inner to the outer part of the ria. The general patterns found in the annelid composition suggest that the assemblages were dominated by oligochaetes in the inner sheltered sampling sites and polychaetes in the outer more exposed sites. Several faunistical and taxonomical remarks on selected species are presented. Two new species of oligochaetes are described: Coralliodrilus artabrensis sp. n. and Pirodrilus fungithecatus sp. n. (Naididae, Phallodrilinae). A new biological index, based on the oligochaete/ polychaete ratio (O/P), is proposed as tool to evaluate environmental quality and to monitor future changes in the environment.

Differences in the Structure and Diversity of Invertebrate Assemblages Harbored by an Intertidal Ecosystem Engineer between Urban and Non-Urban Shores

“…Oligochaetes are considered biological indicators of pollution being more abundant in polluted locations and commonly associated with organic enrichment [61,62]. Oligochaetes, in our study, were more abundant in urban shores probably as a consequence of the high concentration of heavy metals and nutrient enrichment in urban shores [42].…”

Intertidal macroalgal and epiphytic polychaete distributions strengthen marine ecoregions of Western Australia

“…The complexity of macroalgae represents the availability of space and the variety of resources, and thus it often determines the assemblage structure of epiphytic invertebrates (Veiga et al 2014, Torres et al 2015, Gan et al 2019, Mikac et al 2020. At small to moderate amounts, filamentous algae provide alternative habitats (Arroyo and Bonsdorff 2017) and food for herbivorous or omnivorous polychaetes, e.g., Syllidae, Nereididae, and Eunicidae (Jumars et al 2015), which are diverse families on rocky shores (Giangrande et al 2003;Antoniadou et al 2004;Parapar et al 2009).…”

Annelid assemblages on artificial and natural hard substrata differ decades after building: A case study on a one-century old seawall

“…The first hypothesis is that diversity will be higher in natural habitats compared with artificial seawalls and that species composition will differ. In this respect, annelids, which are dominant in marine benthic communities of both hard and soft bottoms (Viéitez et al, 2004), can be effective surrogates for the estimation of the dynamics of benthic communities, as they play key roles in ecosystem function (Olsgard et al, 2003;Giangrande et al, 2005;Parapar et al, 2009). Secondly, it is hypothesized that small scale differences in the species composition can be detected in old structures, even though they might superficially look naturalized by substrate weathering and phytal canopy colonization.…”