Decomposing diversity patterns of a soft-bottom macroinvertebrate community in the tropical eastern Pacific
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Decomposing diversity patterns of a soft-bottom macroinvertebrate community in the tropical eastern PacificAutor(es)
Data
2003Resumo
[Abstract] Diversity is one of the most frequently used attributes of ecological
communities, and there is a long-standing discussion about their adequate use,
calculus and interpretation. One of the most conspicuous and simple diversity
estimators is species richness, but it has been criticized by recurrent pitfalls, which has
biased comparisons and the testing of hypotheses. Otherwise, synthetic ecological
indices of diversity are difficult to interpret due the underlying complex or cryptic
concepts. Most of the studies in soft-bottom macroinvertebrate communities trying to
estimate richness species, have actually quantified species diversity as species
density, the number of species per unit area. In the present study, the diversity of a
tropical Pacific soft bottom community is analytically decomposed using two null
models to assess species richness and evenness, and the slope of species-area
curves to estimate species density. A declining trend of species richness was
observed along a 2-year period and could be related to the cumulative effects of
interannual environmental variability and fishing disturbance. The species-area
relationship could be considered a good indicator of spatial heterogeneity, specifically
to illustrate the depth gradient. Local abundance was negatively correlated with
evenness, showing that high-density communities are the result of increases in
abundance of a few dominant species. Here we demonstrate that seasonality, depth
and abundance could explain diversity in soft-bottom macroinvertebrate communities of
coastal waters and propose a robust procedure to survey diversity as a part of
monitoring programs of coastal management.
Palabras chave
Diversity
Evenness
Species richness
Species-area curve
Macroinvertebrate assemblages
Tropical Pacific
Soft-bottom benthos
Evenness
Species richness
Species-area curve
Macroinvertebrate assemblages
Tropical Pacific
Soft-bottom benthos