The benthic infauna of the North Sea: species distribution and assemblages

Künitzer, A.; Basford, D.J.; Craeymeersch, J.A.M.; Dewarumez, Jean-Marie; Dörjes, Jürgen; Duineveld, G.C.A.; Eleftheriou, A.; Heip, C.H.R.; Herman, Peter M. J.; Kingston, P. F.; Niermann, U.; Rachor, Eike; Rumohr, Heye; Wilde, Peter

doi:10.1093/icesjms/49.2.127

Cited by 140 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In general, the benthic biomass in the southern North Sea decreases with increasing distance from the coast (Rachor 1982;Kröncke and Rachor 1992;Künitzer et al 1992). A negative correlation of biomass with latitude was found by Heip et al (1992), which holds true also for the macrozoobenthic community of the Pleistocene Elbe valley.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Later studies aimed at creating detailed pictures of the biotic community structure of the seaXoor and its connections to biotopes, pollutions, and nature conservation (e.g. Caspers 1939;Stripp 1969;Salzwedel et al 1985;Duineveld et al 1991;Heip et al 1992;Künitzer et al 1992;Rachor and Nehmer 2003). Gear and methods employed have constantly been improved, and with the introduction of computers the possibility arose to analyse vast amounts of data from exhaustive surveys with statistical methods (Salzwedel et al 1985).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Benthic macrofauna communities of the submersed Pleistocene Elbe valley in the southern North Sea

Rehm

Rachor

2007

Helgol Mar Res

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Macrozoobenthic community structure was studied in two surveys along a transect of 13 stations following the submersed Pleistocene Elbe valley in the south-eastern North Sea during May to June 2000 and March 2001. Two replicates of bottom samples were taken with a van Veen grab of 0.1 m 2 sampling size. In order to analyse the benthic macrofauna communities, the animals obtained were identiWed and counted, and MDS and cluster analysis were performed. Out of 200 taxa identiWed, 84 were polychaetes, 46 molluscs, 40 crustaceans, 15 echinoderms, and 15 belonged to other groups. Mean abundance was 4,860 individuals per m 2 , mean biomass 32.9 g ash free dry mass per m 2 . Mean diversity was 1.76 and mean evenness 0.54. The macrofauna of the Pleistocene Elbe valley is composed of three associations according to the cluster analysis. Each association is described by a combination of characterizing and discriminating species. An Amphiura-brachiata·Tellimya-ferruginosa-association was found in the south-eastern part of the depression, whereas a transitional association with elements of both assemblages lead to an Amphiura-Wliformis·Galathowenia-oculata·Nuculoma-tenuis-association in the north-western part of the valley. In the context of the entire southern North Sea, both associations are small-scale substructures, and as such are contained in the Nucula-nitidosa-community and the Amphiura-Wliformis-community, respectively. A northwestward shift of the community of the southern Elbe valley was found and discussed as a possible consequence of warm winters of the last decades.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benthic macrofauna communities of the submersed Pleistocene Elbe valley in the southern North Sea

Rehm

Rachor

2007

Helgol Mar Res

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“…due to different mobility). Spatial variability of benthic infauna, for example, was often linked to sediment characteristics, which were related to food supply (Künitzer et al 1992;Kröncke 2006). Sediments in the German EEZ are heterogeneous distributed consisting mainly of terrigenous sand, mud or a mixture of both (''Sublittoral sand'' and ''Sublittoral mud'' after EUNIS classification 5.2 and 5.3).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Daan et al (1990) highlighted the importance to analyse fish communities instead of single commercial species to understand how the North Sea ecosystem functions. Since the beginning of such investigations, effort increased to analyse spatial community structure of fish (Greenstreet and Hall 1996;Ehrich et al 2009), benthic infauna (Duineveld et al 1991;Heip et al 1992;Künitzer et al 1992;Kröncke et al 2011) and benthic epifauna (Frauenheim et al 1989;Jennings et al 1999;Zühlke et al 2001) on a North Sea wide scale. However, similarities and the interrelationships in community structure between these faunal components were only recently studied, for example by Callaway et al (2002) and Reiss et al (2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benthos and demersal fish habitats in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the North Sea

et al. 2012

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We compiled data from different monitoring surveys to analyse and compare community and diversity patterns of fish, epi-and infauna in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the North Sea in order to identify benthic habitats common to all faunal components. We found congruent community patterns of fish, epi-and infauna for the coastal waters, the Oysterground and the area called ''Duck's Bill'', which coincided with specific abiotic characteristics of these regions. The three regions were defined as special habitats for fish, epi-and infauna species in the German EEZ. The differences in the seasonal variability of abiotic factors seem to be the most important discriminating abiotic characteristic for the three habitats. The spatial distribution of fish, epifauna and infauna communities remained stable over time although habitat characteristics such as sea surface temperature increased due to climate change. However, it is expected that the coastal habitat will be more sensitive to future climate change effects in contrast to the Oysterground and Duck's Bill habitat.

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“…Combined datasets are often needed to unravel large-scale or long-term patterns in benthos ecology (e.g. Künitzer et al 1992;Rees et al 2002;Van Hoey et al 2004). In these cases it is of utmost importance to know how exactly sieving procedure impacts the observed spatial or temporal patterns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sieving alive or after fixation: effects of sieving procedure on macrobenthic diversity, density and community structure

et al. 2007

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Although combining datasets is often needed to unravel large-scale or long-term patterns in benthos ecology, this is frequently hampered by diVerences in technical design of the individual studies. One element that often vary among macrobenthic studies is the sieving procedure: sieving alive versus sieving after Wxation. This study therefore aimed at the qualiWcation and quantiWcation of the impact of sieving procedure, using a 1 mm mesh sized sieve, at three levels of ecological organisation: (1) diversity, (2) species and taxon density, and (3) community structure. To include a maximum suite of macrobenthic species and to evaluate the community-speciWc eVects, the impact of sieving procedure was investigated within four widely spread macrobenthos communities in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Sieving alive negatively impacted all tested diversity measures (S, N 1 , N 2 , N 1 , HЈ, ES 100 and JЈ): community-dependent relative losses of up to 35% were observed. However, most trends were ambiguous and statistically non-signiWcant. Community-and taxon-dependent impacts were detected at the level of density. Mainly polychaetes were found to be negatively impacted by sieving alive (relative losses maximum 81%): especially small, interstitial polychaetes (e.g. Hesionura elongata and Spio Wlicornis) tend to actively escape from the sieve (relative loss up to 100%). Next to size, also behaviour, the presence of head appendages, the depth of the sampling stations and sampling season are believed to inXuence the sieving procedure impact. While detailed community composition was impacted (ANOSIM dissimilarity: maximum 85%), no major impact on the diVerentiation between the investigated communities was detected. The present study thus demonstrated that combining data, retrieved with a diVerent sieving procedure can be useful, but its reliability will mainly depend on the type of questions one wants to answer. In all cases caution at all levels of ecological organisation is advised.

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The benthic infauna of the North Sea: species distribution and assemblages

Cited by 140 publications

References 8 publications

Benthic macrofauna communities of the submersed Pleistocene Elbe valley in the southern North Sea

Benthic macrofauna communities of the submersed Pleistocene Elbe valley in the southern North Sea

Benthos and demersal fish habitats in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the North Sea

Sieving alive or after fixation: effects of sieving procedure on macrobenthic diversity, density and community structure

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