Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1047, Blindern 0316 Oslo, Norway; Univ. Lille, CNRS, Univ. Littoral Côte d'Opale, UMR 8187, LOG, Laboratoire d'Océanologie et de Géosciences, F 62930 Wimereux, France.
Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Allegaten 41, 5007 Bergen, Norway.
Mar Environ Res. 2018 Jun;137:24-36. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2018.02.023. Epub 2018 Feb 22.
Benthic macrofauna is one of the most widely used biological groups to assess the ecological status of marine systems. Lately, attention has been paid to similar use of benthic foraminifera. In this study, distribution patterns of benthic foraminiferal and macrofaunal species were investigated simultaneously in 11 fjords in southeastern Norway in order to assess correlations and responses to environmental conditions. Selected fjords allowed to investigate contrasted environmental conditions from low total organic carbon (TOC) content (sediment TOC < 2.7%) in normoxia (bottom-water [O] > 2 mL O.L) up to high TOC content (> 3.4%) in severe hypoxia (< 0.5 mL O.L). Environmental parameters comprised bottom-water dissolved oxygen, grain size, total organic carbon, total nitrogen (TN), pigments and depth below threshold (DBT). Foraminiferal and macrofaunal community data were significantly correlated (Procrustes analysis m = 0.66, p = 0.001). Hence, benthic foraminiferal distribution patterns mirror those of benthic macrofauna. However, as opposed to the foraminifera, macrofauna was not recorded at the most oxygen-depleted stations and, hence, was more sensitive to severe oxygen depletion. With regard to assigning species to ecological groups for ecological quality status assessment, the results suggest that species, e.g. Spiroplectammina biformis (foraminifera), Scalibregma inflatum (macrofauna), may exhibit different ecological requirements depending on their habitat. Considering the observed congruent patterns of benthic foraminifera and macrofauna, palaeo-communities of benthic foraminifera could be used as indicators of reference conditions for benthic macrofaunal community structure. This would however need further developments of algorithms to perform such a translation.
底栖大型动物是评估海洋系统生态状况最常用的生物群之一。最近，人们开始关注类似的利用底栖有孔虫来评估生态状况的方法。本研究在挪威东南部的 11 个峡湾中同时调查了底栖有孔虫和大型底栖动物的分布模式，以评估它们之间的相关性以及对环境条件的响应。选择的峡湾可以调查从低总有机碳（TOC）含量（沉积物 TOC<2.7%）的正常氧条件（底层水[O]>2 毫升 O.L）到高 TOC 含量（>3.4%）的严重缺氧条件（<0.5 毫升 O.L）之间的对比环境条件。环境参数包括底层水溶解氧、粒度、总有机碳、总氮（TN）、色素和阈值以下深度（DBT）。有孔虫和大型底栖动物群落数据具有显著相关性（Procrustes 分析 m=0.66，p=0.001）。因此，底栖有孔虫的分布模式反映了底栖大型动物的分布模式。然而，与有孔虫不同的是，大型底栖动物并没有在氧气最匮乏的站位记录到，因此对严重缺氧更为敏感。关于将物种分配到生态类群以进行生态质量状况评估，研究结果表明，某些物种，例如双形旋壁有孔虫（有孔虫）、膨胀等辐虫（大型底栖动物），可能根据其栖息地表现出不同的生态需求。考虑到底栖有孔虫和大型底栖动物的观察到的一致模式，可以将底栖有孔虫的古群落用作底栖大型底栖动物群落结构的参考条件的指示物。然而，这需要进一步开发算法来执行这种转换。
