A biological trait approach to assess the functional composition of subtidal benthic communities in an estuarine ecosystem

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• 作者：Pieter van der Linden^a ; ¹ ; ^{lindenvdpieter@gmail.com} ; Joana Patrí ; cio^a ; ¹ ; Agnese Marchini^b ; Nú ; ria Cid^c ; Joã ; o Magalhã ; es Neto^a ; Joã ; o Carlos Marques^a
• 关键词：Benthic invertebrates ; Biological traits analysis (BTA) ; Functional diversity ; Taxonomic diversity ; Functional redundancy ; Mondego estuary ; Portugal
• 刊名：Ecological Indicators
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：22_1470160x
• 类别：env
• 出版时间：September, 2012
• 卷：20
• 期：Complete
• 页码：121-133
• 文件大小：1636 K

摘要

Within transitional/estuarine environments 鈥榚cosystem functioning鈥?has been mostly investigated with 鈥渢raditional鈥?taxonomic analysis, based on the taxonomic composition of benthic invertebrate communities. However, 鈥榚cosystem functioning鈥?depends also greatly on the functional characteristics (biological traits) of organisms.

It was a priori suggested that the biological traits of the subtidal benthic invertebrate communities within an estuarine environment would respond to the high variability of environmental pressures (natural and human induced) within this type of ecosystem.

For this study, traditional taxonomic analysis (species richness, species density and Shannon-Wiener diversity) as well as biological trait analysis were used together for the first time to investigate the response of the subtidal benthic invertebrate communities to the environmental pressures within the Mondego estuary (Portugal).

Biological trait analysis, in addition to traditional taxonomic analysis provided a more comprehensive understanding of the functioning within this type of ecosystem. Some of the most important outcomes are: (i) the trait 鈥渟alinity preference鈥?was the most important trait that distributed the species along the estuary, (ii) the central part of the estuary appeared to be under higher environmental stress levels than the other areas, as suggested by a dominance of some 鈥渙pportunistic鈥?traits (e.g. small short-lived species), (iii) the ratio between functional diversity (FD) and Shannon-Wiener diversity (H鈥? indicated lower functional redundancy at the upper reaches of the estuary. Our results, suggest that the ratio (FD/H鈥? might be a helpful tool to visualize this functional attribute and could potentially be applied to different communities from distinct environments. Using the traditional taxonomic analysis alone, this last functional aspect would not be detectable. Therefore, the inclusion of biological traits analysis is recommendable for estuarine ecological studies.