Colonization in Artificial Seaweed Substrates: Two Locations, One Year

Autor: Diego Carreira-Flores, Regina Neto, Hugo R. S. Ferreira, Edna Cabecinha, Guillermo Díaz-Agras, Marcos Rubal, Pedro T. Gomes
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Diversity, Vol 15, Iss 6, p 733 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1424-2818
DOI: 10.3390/d15060733
Popis: Artificial substrates have been implemented to overcome the problems associated with quantitative sampling of marine epifaunal assemblages. These substrates provide artificial habitats that mimic natural habitat features, thereby standardizing the sampling effort and enabling direct comparisons among different sites and studies. This paper explores the potential of the “Artificial Seaweed Monitoring System” (ASMS) sampling methodology to evaluate the natural variability of assemblages along a coastline of more than 200 km, by describing the succession of the ASMS’ associated macrofauna at two Rías of the Galician Coast (NW Iberian Peninsula) after 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after deployment. The results show that macrofauna assemblages harbored by ASMS differ between locations for every type of data. The results also support the hypothesis that succession in benthic communities is not a linear process, but rather a mixture of different successional stages. The use of the ASMS is proved to be a successful standard monitoring methodology, as it is sensitive to scale-dependent patterns and captures the temporal variability of macrobenthic assemblages. Hence, the ASMS can serve as a replicable approach contributing to the “Good Environmental Status” assessment through non-destructive monitoring programs based on benthic marine macrofauna monitoring, capturing the variability in representative assemblages as long as sampling deployment periods are standard.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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