Low connectivity between shallow, mesophotic and rariphotic zone benthos
| Autor: | Molly Rivers, Struan R. Smith, Paris V. Stefanoudis, Lucy C. Woodall, Craig W. Schneider, Alex Rogers, Daniel Wagner, Helen Ford |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
geography Multidisciplinary geography.geographical_feature_category bermuda 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology mces Coral reef 15. Life on land deep reef refuge hypothesis 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences reef connectivity Oceanography Benthos benthic community composition Environmental science Earth Science Ecosystem lcsh:Q 14. Life underwater lcsh:Science Research Article |
| Zdroj: | Royal Society Open Science, Vol 6, Iss 9 (2019) Royal Society Open Science |
| ISSN: | 2054-5703 |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rsos.190958 |
| Popis: | Worldwide coral reefs face catastrophic damage due to a series of anthropogenic stressors. Investigating how coral reefs ecosystems are connected, in particular across depth, will help us understand if deeper reefs harbour distinct communities. Here, we explore changes in benthic community structure across 15–300 m depths using technical divers and submersibles around Bermuda. We report high levels of floral and faunal differentiation across depth, with distinct assemblages occupying each depth surveyed, except 200–300 m, corresponding to the lower rariphotic zone. Community turnover was highest at the boundary depths of mesophotic coral ecosystems (30–150 m) driven largely by taxonomic turnover and to a lesser degree by ordered species loss (nestedness). Our work highlights the biologically unique nature of benthic communities in the mesophotic and rariphotic zones, and their limited connectivity to shallow reefs, thus emphasizing the need to manage and protect deeper reefs as distinct entities. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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