Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences (DISTAV), University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy.
Department of Biomolecular Sciences (DiSB), University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy.
Mar Environ Res. 2018 Nov;142:295-305. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2018.10.016. Epub 2018 Oct 31.
Unlike the soft bottom meiofauna, meiofauna associated to hard substrata is poorly studied, despite its ecological relevance. Since communities of hard substrata are usually characterized by species with different life cycles and strategies from those of soft bottom assemblages, information on hard substrata meiofauna is still needed. In this study, sessile macrobenthos and the associated meiofaunal assemblages of two sites of Portofino (NW Mediterranean) were investigated in two seasons at three different depths on both sub-vertical and inclined reefs. The study aimed to assess the abundance, diversity and composition of the meiofauna and the factors structuring its assemblages. Moreover, as meiofauna is known to be dependent upon the substrate characteristics, the study investigated whether the meiofaunal patterns could be related to the sessile macrobenthos structure and composition, and to which extent. Macroalgae dominated the sessile macrobenthic assemblages, while Nematoda and Copepoda were the main meiofaunal groups. Meiofaunal higher-taxa richness and diversity resulted very high, due to the large number of different microhabitats offered by macroalgae. Macrobenthic assemblages were dominated by Rodophyta and Ochrophyta in summer, the latter dramatically collapsing in winter. The meiofaunal abundance and composition changed significantly with the season, consistently with the sessile macrobenthic assemblages, and resulted strongly correlated with Ochrophyta. Shaping the meiofaunal assemblages, macroalgae appeared to act as ecosystem engineer for the meiofauna.
与软底海洋中型动物不同，与硬底栖生物相关的中型动物研究较少，尽管它们具有生态相关性。由于硬底栖生物群落通常具有与软底生物群落不同生命周期和策略的物种，因此仍然需要有关硬底栖生物中型动物的信息。在这项研究中，我们在两个季节在 Portofino（西北地中海）的两个地点调查了两个垂直和倾斜珊瑚礁上三个不同深度的附着大型底栖动物和相关的中型动物组合。该研究旨在评估中型动物的丰度、多样性和组成以及其组合的结构因素。此外，由于中型动物已知依赖于基质特征，因此该研究调查了中型动物模式是否可以与附着大型底栖动物的结构和组成有关，以及在多大程度上有关。藻类是附着大型底栖动物群落的主要组成部分，而线虫和桡足类是主要的中型动物群。由于藻类提供了大量不同的微生境，中型动物的高级分类群丰富度和多样性非常高。夏季，大型底栖动物群落以红藻和褐藻为主，而褐藻在冬季急剧减少。中型动物的丰度和组成随着季节的变化而显著变化，与附着大型底栖动物群落一致，并且与褐藻强烈相关。藻类似乎作为中型动物的生态系统工程师，塑造了中型动物的组合。
