Seasonal patterns of biodiversity in Mediterranean coastal lagoons

Abstract

Aim: Understanding and quantifying the seasonal patterns in biodiversity of phytobenthos, macro-zoobenthos and fishes in Mediterranean coastal lagoons, and the species dependence upon environmental factors. Location: The study was carried out in the "Stagnone di Marsala e Saline di Trapani e Paceco," the largest coastal lagoon system in the central Mediterranean Sea (Sicily, Italy), a Special Protection Area located along one of the central ecological corridors joining Africa and Europe. Methods: The coastal lagoon system was selected as a model ecosystem to investigate the seasonal variations in biodiversity indices and dominance-diversity relationships in phytobenthos, macro-zoobenthos and fishes, and how seasonal variations in temperature, salinity, depth, inorganic and organic suspended matter affect the abundance of the species constituting these communities. Models of ecosystem structure, describing the interactions among functional groups and environmental variables, were also developed using confirmatory path analysis and artificial neural networks to exemplify their application in predicting temperature-driven alterations. Results: Wide seasonal variations in biodiversity indices and dominance-diversity relationships across the communities of the coastal lagoon system were observed, driven by the dynamics in climate and resource availability. The effects of the environmental variables on taxon abundances varied in relation to the community, with the widest responses elicited in phytobenthos and fishes. Temperature was the main variable affecting taxon abundances in macro-zoobenthos and was also the major driver of shallow water ecosystem structure. Main conclusions: This research shed light on the seasonal variations in biodiversity of Mediterranean coastal lagoons, elucidating also the tight dependence of phytobenthos, macro-zoobenthos and fish diversity upon environmental factors. The findings and the methodological approach proposed may be crucial in developing models able to predict future climate-driven alterations in communities inhabiting these important and threatened ecosystems. | 1513 BELLINO Et aL.

Testing the Influence of Incomplete DNA Barcode Libraries on Ecological Status Assessment of Mediterranean Transitional Waters

“…The WFD indicates specific biological quality elements (BQEs), such as fish, benthic macroinvertebrates, and phytoplanktonic benthos to assess the ecological quality status (EQS). To evaluate these elements, the directive requires the development and validation of tools mainly based on taxonomic identification and composition, abundance, and species sensitivity [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. They also include descriptors based on the individual body size [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ], functional rates, such as the decomposition of dead organic matter [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], and ecosystem thermodynamics [ 22 ].…”

Phytoplankton community structure changes in Thi Nai lagoon (South - Central Vietnam) from 2004 to 2020

“…Among the areas,  + at river stations were much higher than others in the dry season, while in the rainy season all areas had similar values. (Duarte et al, 2006), Mediterranean coastal lagoons (Bellino et al, 2019;Stefanidou et al, 2020), etc.). This reflected seasonal variation of environmental factors, such as freshwater input, nutrients, salinity, total suspended solids.…”

Patterns in Alpha and Beta Phytoplankton Diversity along a Conductivity Gradient in Coastal Mediterranean Lagoons

“…As demonstrated by the constructed non-linear models, all phytoplankton metrics (phytoplankton C, abundance, biomass, species richness and pair-wise beta diversity) consistently exhibited a negative relationship with conductivity, implying that a potential increase in the latter will negatively affect them. Nevertheless, this is a first attempt to predict the phytoplankton response of five Mediterranean lagoons to enhanced salinity due to climate change and longer time series in the future will allow us to strengthen the accuracy of the model and of projections [18].…”

“…Within the Mediterranean basin, there are numerous (>100) coastal lagoons of varying size [14,15]. Multiple line of evidence suggest that these ecosystems host an important fraction of global biodiversity including rare species [16][17][18]. A considerable number of studies examining the alpha diversity patterns (i.e., the local diversity within a site) of macrophytes (e.g., [19]), fish (e.g., [20]) and benthic invertebrates (e.g., [21]) in coastal lagoons relate them to environmental parameters (e.g., total phosphorus).…”