Short CommunicationTube-forming polychaetes enhance invertebrate diversity and abundance in sandy sediments of Mozambique, Africa
In marine soft-bottom systems, polychaetes can increase habitat complexity by constructing rigid tubes (e.g. several onuphid species) that contrast with surrounding topographically flat sediments. These structures can provide predation refuges and increase larval settlement and thereby increase the...
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ftjafricanj:oai:ojs.ajol.info:article/70563 2023-05-15T17:32:19+02:00 Short CommunicationTube-forming polychaetes enhance invertebrate diversity and abundance in sandy sediments of Mozambique, Africa Thomsen, MS Muth, MF McGlathery, KJ 2011-10-12 application/pdf http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajms/article/view/70563 eng eng NISC http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajms/article/view/70563/59163 http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajms/article/view/70563 Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the publisher. African Journal of Marine Science; Vol 33, No 2 (2011) 1814-232X info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Peer-reviewed Article 2011 ftjafricanj 2017-03-05T06:44:53Z In marine soft-bottom systems, polychaetes can increase habitat complexity by constructing rigid tubes (e.g. several onuphid species) that contrast with surrounding topographically flat sediments. These structures can provide predation refuges and increase larval settlement and thereby increase the richness and abundance of fauna. We collected invertebrate samples from an intertidal flat with low onuphid tube density (2.7 m–2) in Mozambique and document that more organisms (70 times higher mollusc abundances) and more species (15 times more mollusc species) were found associated with solitary tubes of an onuphid polychaete compared with surrounding sand habitats. These results are in agreement with tube versus sand comparisons from soft-bottom systems in the North Atlantic where polychaete tube densities are often much higher. Keywords: habitat formation, onuphid polychaete, species richness, western Indian OceanAfrican Journal of Marine Science 2011, 33(2): 327–332 Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic AJOL - African Journals Online Indian |
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Open Polar |
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AJOL - African Journals Online |
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ftjafricanj |
language |
English |
description |
In marine soft-bottom systems, polychaetes can increase habitat complexity by constructing rigid tubes (e.g. several onuphid species) that contrast with surrounding topographically flat sediments. These structures can provide predation refuges and increase larval settlement and thereby increase the richness and abundance of fauna. We collected invertebrate samples from an intertidal flat with low onuphid tube density (2.7 m–2) in Mozambique and document that more organisms (70 times higher mollusc abundances) and more species (15 times more mollusc species) were found associated with solitary tubes of an onuphid polychaete compared with surrounding sand habitats. These results are in agreement with tube versus sand comparisons from soft-bottom systems in the North Atlantic where polychaete tube densities are often much higher. Keywords: habitat formation, onuphid polychaete, species richness, western Indian OceanAfrican Journal of Marine Science 2011, 33(2): 327–332 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Thomsen, MS Muth, MF McGlathery, KJ |
spellingShingle |
Thomsen, MS Muth, MF McGlathery, KJ Short CommunicationTube-forming polychaetes enhance invertebrate diversity and abundance in sandy sediments of Mozambique, Africa |
author_facet |
Thomsen, MS Muth, MF McGlathery, KJ |
author_sort |
Thomsen, MS |
title |
Short CommunicationTube-forming polychaetes enhance invertebrate diversity and abundance in sandy sediments of Mozambique, Africa |
title_short |
Short CommunicationTube-forming polychaetes enhance invertebrate diversity and abundance in sandy sediments of Mozambique, Africa |
title_full |
Short CommunicationTube-forming polychaetes enhance invertebrate diversity and abundance in sandy sediments of Mozambique, Africa |
title_fullStr |
Short CommunicationTube-forming polychaetes enhance invertebrate diversity and abundance in sandy sediments of Mozambique, Africa |
title_full_unstemmed |
Short CommunicationTube-forming polychaetes enhance invertebrate diversity and abundance in sandy sediments of Mozambique, Africa |
title_sort |
short communicationtube-forming polychaetes enhance invertebrate diversity and abundance in sandy sediments of mozambique, africa |
publisher |
NISC |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajms/article/view/70563 |
geographic |
Indian |
geographic_facet |
Indian |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
African Journal of Marine Science; Vol 33, No 2 (2011) 1814-232X |
op_relation |
http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajms/article/view/70563/59163 http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajms/article/view/70563 |
op_rights |
Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the publisher. |
_version_ |
1766130361482346496 |