Aggregate patterns of macrofaunal diversity: An interocean comparison
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Date
2017-07
Publication Type
Journal Article
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Abstract
Aim
While geographical patterns of species richness are reasonably well explored for single well-studied taxa, less is known about aggregate patterns of total richness for major biomes and their environmental correlates. Here we analyse continental-scale aggregate patterns of macrofaunal diversity for sandy beaches, a dominant habitat along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America.
Location
South American coastlines.
Time period
Present day (data amassed from studies performed since 1971).
Major taxa studied
Benthic macrofauna, including crustaceans, polychaetes and molluscs.
Methods
We compiled richness information for all macrofaunal groups on 263 sandy beaches in South America using standard criteria. We further matched these data with environmental variables including sea surface temperature (SST), chlorophyll a, grain size, beach slope, tide range and various morphometrics. We used generalized linear mixed models to relate environmental factors to observed variation in total macrofaunal richness across all beaches, testing competing hypotheses about environmental correlates and possible drivers of latitudinal diversity.
Results
Macrofaunal richness decreased from tropical to temperate beaches in the Pacific and followed a parabolic trend in the Atlantic, with the highest biodiversity found at tropical and mid-latitudinal bands. Beach slope, tidal range and chlorophyll a mostly explained latitudinal trends in macrofaunal richness, followed by grain size, SST and ocean basin.
Main conclusions
This study indicates that richness of macrofaunal species at a given beach is most closely related to characteristics of the physical habitat, such as beach slope, area and grain size. At this scale, planktonic food supply also appeared to be more important than temperature, which is a dominant explanatory variable of global-scale variation in species richness
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Publication status
published
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Book title
Journal / series
Volume
26 (7)
Pages / Article No.
823 - 834
Publisher
Wiley
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
benthic macrofauna; environmental correlates; latitudinal diversity; macroecology; sandy beaches; South America
Organisational unit
02286 - Swiss Data Science Center (SDSC) / Swiss Data Science Center (SDSC)