[OANNES Foro] Richness of macrofaunal diversity of sandy beaches along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America

[Mario Cabrejos]

Global Ecology and Biogeography

First published: 27 April 2017 

DOI: 10.1111/geb.12588  


 


Aggregate patterns of macrofaunal diversity: An interocean comparison


.         Omar Defeo, Carlos A. M. Barboza, Francisco R. Barboza, William H.
Aeberhard, Tatiana M. B. Cabrini, Ricardo S. Cardoso, Leonardo Ortega,
Viviane Skinner,Boris Worm


0.      

.         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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