Influence of piers on functional groups of benthic primary producers and consumers in the channel of a subtropical coastal lagoon

Pagliosa, Paulo Roberto; Cantor, Mauricio; Scherner, Fernando; Otegui, Mariana Beatriz Paz; Lemes-Silva, Aurea Luiza; Martins, Cintia Dalcuche Leal; Alves, Giorgia Freitas; Fonseca, Alessandra; Horta Jr, Paulo Antunes

Abstracts

Artificial habitats have become common in coastal areas worldwide and may influence the structure and functioning of benthic ecosystems. We analyze the influence of piers on the benthic morphofunctional groups of rocky seaweeds and of soft bottom macrofauna in the channel of Conceição Lagoon (southern Brazil). The main impact is a reduction in the luminosity available for photosynthetic activity which is directly related to a decrease in the biomasses of sediment microphytobenthos and of more highly structured macroalgae life-forms. Contrary to expectations, the morphotypes of potentially high biomass productivity, such as articulated coralline, corticated and leathery macroalgae, were in general less abundant and the low biomass foliose and filamentous macroalgae occurred in reference areas but not under the piers. The piers' effects on motile epifauna and infauna functional groups were site-specific and probably related to the general reduction in primary producer organisms in the new habitats. The discretely motile infauna was the only functional group able to thrive under the piers due to their reduced motility and fragile morphological structures, being benefited by the shelter provided by the artificial habitats. Our results showed that the piers might have a negative effect on the base-trophic level organisms responsible for bottom-up controls.

Soft bottom; Rocky bottom; Macroalgae; Macrofauna; Functional analysis; Bottom-up control

Hábitats artificiais têm se tornado comum em áreas costeiras no mundo todo, podendo influenciar a estrutura e funcionamento de ecossistemas bênticos. Nós analisamos a influência de trapiches nos grupos morfofuncionais bênticos de algas associadas a substrato consolidado e de macrofauna em substrato inconsolidado, no canal da Lagoa da Conceição (sul do Brasil). O principal impacto da presença de trapiches é a redução da irradiação disponível para atividade fotossintética, o que está diretamente relacionado com o decréscimo na biomassa microfitobentônica no sedimento e de macroalga de formas de vida mais complexas. Contrário ao esperado os morfotipos com alto potencial de produtividade de biomassa, como macroalgas calcárias articuladas, corticadas e coriáceas, em geral foram menos abundantes, sendo que macroalgas foliáceas e filamentosas de menor biomassa foram encontradas exclusivamente em áreas controle. Os efeitos do trapiche nos grupos funcionais de epifauna e infauna foram específicos ao ponto de coleta e provavelmente relacionados com redução generalizada de produtores primários e com o novo hábitat criado. A infauna discretamente móvel foi o único grupo funcional capaz de prosperar embaixo dos trapiches, devido à sua mobilidade reduzida e frágil estrutura morfológica, beneficiando-se do abrigo oferecido pelos hábitats artificiais. Nossos resultados mostraram que os trapiches podem ter um efeito negativo sobre os organismos da base da cadeia trófica, responsáveis pelo controle bottom-up.

Substrato consolidado; Substrato inconsolidado; Macroalga; Macrofauna; Grupos funcionais; Controle bottom-up

BARROS, F.; UNDERWOOD, A. J.; LINDEGARTH, M. The Influence of Rocky Reefs on Structure of Benthic Macrofauna in Nearby Soft-sediments. Estuar. Coast. Shelf Sci., v. 52, p. 191-199, 2001.
BORJA, A.; DAUER, D. M.; ELLIOTT, M.; SIMENSTAD, C. A. Medium- and long-term recovery of estuarine and coastal ecosystems: patterns, rates and restoration effectiveness. Estuar. Coasts, v. 33, p. 1249-1260, 2010.
BREMNER, J.; ROGERS, S. I.; FRID, C. L. J. Methods for describing ecological functioning of marine benthic assemblages using biological traits analysis BTA. Ecol. Indic., v. 6, p. 609-622, 2006.
BULLERI, F.; CHAPMAN M. G. The introduction of coastal infrastructure as a driver of change in marine environments. J. Appl. Ecol., v. 47, p. 26-35, 2010.
CALLIER, M. D.; FLETCHER, R. L.; THORP, C. H.; FICHET, D. Macrofaunal community responses to marina-related pollution on the south coast of England and west coast of France. J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. UK, v. 89, p. 19-29, 2009.
CHOI, H. G.; LEE, K. H.; YOO, H. I.; KANG, P. J.; KIM, Y. S.; NAM, K.W. Physiological differences in the growth of Sargassum horneri between the germling and adult stages. J. Appl. Phycol, v. 20, p. 729-735, 2008.
CLARKE, K. R.; WARWICK, R. M. Quantifying structural redundancy in ecological communities. Oecologia, v. 113, p. 278-289, 1998.
DEAN, W. E. Determination of carbonate and organic matter in calcareous sediments and sedimentary rocks by loss on ignition: comparison with other methods. J. Sediment. Petrol., v. 44, p. 242-248, 1994.
ENRÍQUEZ, S.; PANTOJA-REYES, N. I. Form-function analysis of the effect of canopy morphology on leaf self-shading in the seagrass Thalassia testudinum Oecologia, v. 145, p. 235-243, 2005.
FAUCHALD, K.; JUMARS, P. A. The diet of worms: a study of polychaete feeding guilds. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol. Annu. Rev, v. 17, p. 193-284, 1979.
FONSECA, A. Efeito da drenagem urbana nas características físico-químicas e biológicas da água superficial da lagoa da Conceição. Biotemas, v. 19, p. 7-16, 2006.
FONSECA, A.; BRAGA, E. S. Temporal dynamic of the dissolved nutrients and the eutrophization processes in a southern Brazilian coastal lagoon, Conceição Lagoon. J. Coast. Res., v. 39, p. 1229-1233, 2006.
GAMITO, S.; FURTADO, R. Feeding diversity in macroinvertebrate communities: A contribution to estimate the ecological status in shallow waters. Ecol. Indic., v. 9, p. 1009-1019, 2009.
GATTUSO, J. P.; GENTILI, B.; DUARTE, C. M.; KLEYPAS, J. A.; MIDDELBURG, J. J.; ANTOINE, D. Light availability in the coastal ocean: impact on the distribution of benthic photosynthetic organisms and their contribution to primary production. Biogeosci., v. 3, p. 489-513, 2006.
GLASBY, T. M. Differences between subtidal epibiota on pier pilings and rocky reefs at marinas in Sydney, Australia. Estuar. Coast. Shelf Sci, v. 48, p. 281-290, 1999.
GRASSHOFF, K.; EHRHARDT, M.; KREMLING, K. Methods of seawater analysis Weinheim: Verlag Chemie, 1983. 632 p.
GRAY; J. S.; ASCHAN, M.; CARR, M. R.; CLARKE, K. R.; GREEN, R. H.; PEARSON, T. H.; ROSENBERG, R.; WARWICK, R. M. Analysis of community attributes of the benthic macrofauna of Frierfjord/Langesund-fjord and in a mesocosm experiment. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser, v. 66, p. 285-299, 1988.
HALPERN, B. S.; FLOETER, S. R. Functional diversity responses to changing species richness in reef fish communities. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser, v. 364, p. 147-156, 2008.
HORTA, P. A.; SALLES, J. P.; BOUZON, J.; SCHERNER, F.; CABRAL, D.; BOUZON, Z. L.; ZANETTI, G.; ALENCAR, J. R. Composição e estrutura do fitobentos do infralitoral da reserva biológica marinha do Arvoredo, Santa Catarina, Brasil: implicações para a conservação. Oecologia Bras, v. 12, p. 51-57, 2008.
KIHSLINGER, R. L.; WOODIN, S. A. Food patches and a surface deposit feeding spionid polychaete. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser, v. 201, p. 233-239, 2000.
LANA, P. C.; GUISS, C. Macrofauna-plant biomass interactions in a euhaline salt marsh in Paranagua Bay SE Brazil. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., v. 80, p. 57-64, 1992.
MAGALHÃES, W.; BARROS, F. Structural and functional approaches to describe polychaete assemblages: ecological implications for estuarine ecosystems. Mar. Freshw. Res, v. 62, p. 918-926, 2011.
MARKAGER, S.; SAND-JENSEN, K. The physiology and ecology of light-growth relationship in macroalgae. Prog. Phycol. Res, v. 10, p. 209-298, 1994.
MURRAY, S. N.; AMBROSE, R. F.; DETHIER, M. N. Monitoring rocky shores Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. 220 p.
NEWCOMBE, E. M.; TAYLOR, R. B. Trophic cascade in a seaweed-epi-fauna-ﬁsh food chain. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., v. 408, p. 161-167, 2010.
ORFANIDIS, S.; PANAYOTIDIS, P.; STAMATIS, N. An insight to the ecological evaluation index EEI. Ecol. Indic., v. 3, p. 27-33, 2003.
PAGLIOSA, P. R. Another diet of worms: the applicability of polychaete feeding guilds as a useful conceptual framework and biological variable. Mar. Ecol, v. 26, p. 246-254, 2005.
PAGLIOSA, P. R.; LANA, P. C. Populational dynamics and secondary production of Nereis oligohalina Nereididae: Polychaeta from a subtropical marsh in SE Brazil. Bull. Mar. Sci., v. 67, p. 259-268, 2000.
PAGLIOSA, P. R.; LANA, P. C. Impact of plant cover removal on macrobenthic community structure of a subtropical salt marsh. Bull. Mar. Sci, v. 77, p. 1-17, 2005.
PLANTE-CUNY, M. R. Pigments photosynthetiques et production primaire des fonds meubles meritiques d'une region tropicale Nosy-Be, Madagascar. Trav. Doc. ORSTOM, v. 96, p. 1-359, 1978.
R DEVELOPMENT CORE TEAM. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0. http://www.R-project.org Accessed 2 May 2011.
RILOV, G.; BENAYAHU, Y. Fish assemblage on natural vs. vertical artificial reefs in Eilat Red Sea: the rehabilitation perspective. Mar. Biol, v. 136, p. 931-942, 2000.
SANDRINI-NETO, L.; CAMARGO, M. G. GAD: an R package for ANOVA designs from general principles 2010. http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/GAD. Accessed 2 May 2011.
STENECK, R. S.; DETHIER, M. N. A functional group approach to the structure of algal-dominated communities. Oikos, v. 69, p. 476-498, 1994.
STRICKLAND, J. D. H.; PARSON, T. A practical handbook of seawater analysis. Ottawa: Fish Res, 1972, 310 p.
SUGUIO, K. Introdução à sedimentologia. São Paulo: Edgar Blücher, 318 p. 1973.
THIBAULT, T.; PINEDO, S.; TORRAS, X.; BALLESTEROS, E. Long term decline of the populations of Fucales Cystoseira spp. and Sargassum spp. in the Albères coast France, North-western Mediterranean. Mar. Pollut. Bull., v. 50, p. 1472-1489, 2005.
WEISSBERGER, E. J.; JUMARS, P. A.; MAYER, L. M.; SCHICK, L. L. Structure of a northwest Atlantic Shelf macrofaunal assemblage with respect to seasonal variation in sediment nutritional quality. J. Sea Res, v. 60, p. 164-175, 2008.
ZINTZEN, V.; NORRO, A.; MASSIN, C.; MALLEFET, J. Spatial variability of epifaunal communities from artificial habitat: Shipwrecks in the Southern Bight of the North Sea. Estuar. Coast. Shelf Sci., v. 76, p. 327-344, 2008.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
15 May 2012
Date of issue
Mar 2012

History

Received
06 July 2011
Accepted
03 Mar 2012
Reviewed
04 Oct 2011

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

[1] BARROS, F.; UNDERWOOD, A. J.; LINDEGARTH, M. The Influence of Rocky Reefs on Structure of Benthic Macrofauna in Nearby Soft-sediments. Estuar. Coast. Shelf Sci., v. 52, p. 191-199, 2001.

[2] BORJA, A.; DAUER, D. M.; ELLIOTT, M.; SIMENSTAD, C. A. Medium- and long-term recovery of estuarine and coastal ecosystems: patterns, rates and restoration effectiveness. Estuar. Coasts, v. 33, p. 1249-1260, 2010.

[3] BREMNER, J.; ROGERS, S. I.; FRID, C. L. J. Methods for describing ecological functioning of marine benthic assemblages using biological traits analysis BTA. Ecol. Indic., v. 6, p. 609-622, 2006.

[4] BULLERI, F.; CHAPMAN M. G. The introduction of coastal infrastructure as a driver of change in marine environments. J. Appl. Ecol., v. 47, p. 26-35, 2010.

[5] CALLIER, M. D.; FLETCHER, R. L.; THORP, C. H.; FICHET, D. Macrofaunal community responses to marina-related pollution on the south coast of England and west coast of France. J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. UK, v. 89, p. 19-29, 2009.

[6] CHOI, H. G.; LEE, K. H.; YOO, H. I.; KANG, P. J.; KIM, Y. S.; NAM, K.W. Physiological differences in the growth of Sargassum horneri between the germling and adult stages. J. Appl. Phycol, v. 20, p. 729-735, 2008.

[7] CLARKE, K. R.; WARWICK, R. M. Quantifying structural redundancy in ecological communities. Oecologia, v. 113, p. 278-289, 1998.

[8] DEAN, W. E. Determination of carbonate and organic matter in calcareous sediments and sedimentary rocks by loss on ignition: comparison with other methods. J. Sediment. Petrol., v. 44, p. 242-248, 1994.

[9] ENRÍQUEZ, S.; PANTOJA-REYES, N. I. Form-function analysis of the effect of canopy morphology on leaf self-shading in the seagrass Thalassia testudinum Oecologia, v. 145, p. 235-243, 2005.

[10] FAUCHALD, K.; JUMARS, P. A. The diet of worms: a study of polychaete feeding guilds. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol. Annu. Rev, v. 17, p. 193-284, 1979.

[11] FONSECA, A. Efeito da drenagem urbana nas características físico-químicas e biológicas da água superficial da lagoa da Conceição. Biotemas, v. 19, p. 7-16, 2006.

[12] FONSECA, A.; BRAGA, E. S. Temporal dynamic of the dissolved nutrients and the eutrophization processes in a southern Brazilian coastal lagoon, Conceição Lagoon. J. Coast. Res., v. 39, p. 1229-1233, 2006.

[13] GAMITO, S.; FURTADO, R. Feeding diversity in macroinvertebrate communities: A contribution to estimate the ecological status in shallow waters. Ecol. Indic., v. 9, p. 1009-1019, 2009.

[14] GATTUSO, J. P.; GENTILI, B.; DUARTE, C. M.; KLEYPAS, J. A.; MIDDELBURG, J. J.; ANTOINE, D. Light availability in the coastal ocean: impact on the distribution of benthic photosynthetic organisms and their contribution to primary production. Biogeosci., v. 3, p. 489-513, 2006.

[15] GLASBY, T. M. Differences between subtidal epibiota on pier pilings and rocky reefs at marinas in Sydney, Australia. Estuar. Coast. Shelf Sci, v. 48, p. 281-290, 1999.

[16] GRASSHOFF, K.; EHRHARDT, M.; KREMLING, K. Methods of seawater analysis Weinheim: Verlag Chemie, 1983. 632 p.

[17] GRAY; J. S.; ASCHAN, M.; CARR, M. R.; CLARKE, K. R.; GREEN, R. H.; PEARSON, T. H.; ROSENBERG, R.; WARWICK, R. M. Analysis of community attributes of the benthic macrofauna of Frierfjord/Langesund-fjord and in a mesocosm experiment. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser, v. 66, p. 285-299, 1988.

[18] HALPERN, B. S.; FLOETER, S. R. Functional diversity responses to changing species richness in reef fish communities. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser, v. 364, p. 147-156, 2008.

[19] HORTA, P. A.; SALLES, J. P.; BOUZON, J.; SCHERNER, F.; CABRAL, D.; BOUZON, Z. L.; ZANETTI, G.; ALENCAR, J. R. Composição e estrutura do fitobentos do infralitoral da reserva biológica marinha do Arvoredo, Santa Catarina, Brasil: implicações para a conservação. Oecologia Bras, v. 12, p. 51-57, 2008.

[20] KIHSLINGER, R. L.; WOODIN, S. A. Food patches and a surface deposit feeding spionid polychaete. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser, v. 201, p. 233-239, 2000.

[21] LANA, P. C.; GUISS, C. Macrofauna-plant biomass interactions in a euhaline salt marsh in Paranagua Bay SE Brazil. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., v. 80, p. 57-64, 1992.

[22] MAGALHÃES, W.; BARROS, F. Structural and functional approaches to describe polychaete assemblages: ecological implications for estuarine ecosystems. Mar. Freshw. Res, v. 62, p. 918-926, 2011.

[23] MARKAGER, S.; SAND-JENSEN, K. The physiology and ecology of light-growth relationship in macroalgae. Prog. Phycol. Res, v. 10, p. 209-298, 1994.

[24] MURRAY, S. N.; AMBROSE, R. F.; DETHIER, M. N. Monitoring rocky shores Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. 220 p.

[25] NEWCOMBE, E. M.; TAYLOR, R. B. Trophic cascade in a seaweed-epi-fauna-ﬁsh food chain. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., v. 408, p. 161-167, 2010.

[26] ORFANIDIS, S.; PANAYOTIDIS, P.; STAMATIS, N. An insight to the ecological evaluation index EEI. Ecol. Indic., v. 3, p. 27-33, 2003.

[27] PAGLIOSA, P. R. Another diet of worms: the applicability of polychaete feeding guilds as a useful conceptual framework and biological variable. Mar. Ecol, v. 26, p. 246-254, 2005.

[28] PAGLIOSA, P. R.; LANA, P. C. Populational dynamics and secondary production of Nereis oligohalina Nereididae: Polychaeta from a subtropical marsh in SE Brazil. Bull. Mar. Sci., v. 67, p. 259-268, 2000.

[29] PAGLIOSA, P. R.; LANA, P. C. Impact of plant cover removal on macrobenthic community structure of a subtropical salt marsh. Bull. Mar. Sci, v. 77, p. 1-17, 2005.

[30] PLANTE-CUNY, M. R. Pigments photosynthetiques et production primaire des fonds meubles meritiques d'une region tropicale Nosy-Be, Madagascar. Trav. Doc. ORSTOM, v. 96, p. 1-359, 1978.

[31] R DEVELOPMENT CORE TEAM. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0. http://www.R-project.org Accessed 2 May 2011.

[32] RILOV, G.; BENAYAHU, Y. Fish assemblage on natural vs. vertical artificial reefs in Eilat Red Sea: the rehabilitation perspective. Mar. Biol, v. 136, p. 931-942, 2000.

[33] SANDRINI-NETO, L.; CAMARGO, M. G. GAD: an R package for ANOVA designs from general principles 2010. http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/GAD. Accessed 2 May 2011.

[34] STENECK, R. S.; DETHIER, M. N. A functional group approach to the structure of algal-dominated communities. Oikos, v. 69, p. 476-498, 1994.

[35] STRICKLAND, J. D. H.; PARSON, T. A practical handbook of seawater analysis. Ottawa: Fish Res, 1972, 310 p.

[36] SUGUIO, K. Introdução à sedimentologia. São Paulo: Edgar Blücher, 318 p. 1973.

[37] THIBAULT, T.; PINEDO, S.; TORRAS, X.; BALLESTEROS, E. Long term decline of the populations of Fucales Cystoseira spp. and Sargassum spp. in the Albères coast France, North-western Mediterranean. Mar. Pollut. Bull., v. 50, p. 1472-1489, 2005.

[38] WEISSBERGER, E. J.; JUMARS, P. A.; MAYER, L. M.; SCHICK, L. L. Structure of a northwest Atlantic Shelf macrofaunal assemblage with respect to seasonal variation in sediment nutritional quality. J. Sea Res, v. 60, p. 164-175, 2008.

[39] ZINTZEN, V.; NORRO, A.; MASSIN, C.; MALLEFET, J. Spatial variability of epifaunal communities from artificial habitat: Shipwrecks in the Southern Bight of the North Sea. Estuar. Coast. Shelf Sci., v. 76, p. 327-344, 2008.