Monitoring of marine benthic communities and taxonomic resolution: an approach through diverse habitats and substrates along the Southern Iberian coastline

Studies conducted along the southern Iberian coastline validate macrobenthic community analyses at taxonomic levels higher than that of species. Twelve studies on littoral benthic communities, carried out by the same research team, were selected spanning both a variety of sampling strategies (spatia...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Sánchez Moyano, Juan Emilio, Fa, Darren A., Estacio, F. J., García Gómez, José Carlos
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2006
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/131707
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/131707
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10152-006-0039-2
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Taxonomic resolution
Benthic communities
Southern Iberian Peninsula
Descripción
Sumario:Studies conducted along the southern Iberian coastline validate macrobenthic community analyses at taxonomic levels higher than that of species. Twelve studies on littoral benthic communities, carried out by the same research team, were selected spanning both a variety of sampling strategies (spatial, temporal, spatiotemporal) and substrate/habitat types (sediment, rock, algae). In order to establish differences between the results obtained at the taxonomic levels of species, family and order, similarities among stations were calculated using Spearman’s coefficient for ranges. A subset of three studies was selected to investigate possible differences in ‘best-explaining’ environmental variables with taxonomic level. The environmental variables selected at species level were the same as those found at levels of family and order. It is concluded that studies at the different levels of taxonomic resolution (species, family, order) lead to similar results both with regard to relative community distributions and the environmental variables associated with these. The importance of this result for monitoring similar benthic communities is discussed.