Effects of thallus disturbance on abundance and biomass of soft-bottom species in Kongsfjorden in summer 2013 ...
The effects of biotic disturbances, like seaweed whiplash, on the diversity of benthic communities are well documented for temperate coastal systems, yet missing for Arctic benthos. In Arctic soft-bottom habitats, kelp thalli occur either continuously (e.g. trapped by sediment) or sporadically (by d...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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PANGAEA
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.846449 https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.846449 |
| Summary: | The effects of biotic disturbances, like seaweed whiplash, on the diversity of benthic communities are well documented for temperate coastal systems, yet missing for Arctic benthos. In Arctic soft-bottom habitats, kelp thalli occur either continuously (e.g. trapped by sediment) or sporadically (by drifting on the sediment) after detachment from rocky shores. To explore whether a kelp thallus can disturb the structure and diversity of a coastal Arctic soft-bottom assemblage, we continuously fixed a single thallus of the kelp Saccharina latissima to or sporadically (i.e. biweekly) moved it on the sediment and compared treatment effects to unmanipulated plots (= controls). On 6 September 2013 (i.e. after 73 days of manipulation), one sediment core was taken from each of the 30 plots (n = 10), from which the number of individuals of each of the 45 encountered animal species were recorded. The continuous presence of an experimentally fixed kelp thallus significantly reduced the number of individuals on average by ... : Supplement to: Petrowski, Sina; Molis, Markus; Bender, Anke; Buschbaum, Christian (2015): Disturbance effects of kelp thalli on structure and diversity of a coastal Arctic marine soft-bottom assemblage. Polar Biology, Special Issue ... |
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