Disentangling the effects of eutrophication and natural variability on macrobenthic communities across French coastal lagoons
Coastal lagoons are transitional ecosystems that host a unique diversity of species and support many ecosystem services. Owing to their position at the interface between land and sea, they are also subject to increasing human impacts, which alter their ecological functioning. Because coastal lagoons...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Peer Community In
2024-12-01
|
| Series: | Peer Community Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.499/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1825206425933053952 |
|---|---|
| author | Jones, Auriane G. Schaal, Gauthier Boyé, Aurélien Creemers, Marie Derolez, Valérie Desroy, Nicolas Fiandrino, Annie Mouton, Théophile L. Simier, Monique Smith, Niamh Ouisse, Vincent |
| author_facet | Jones, Auriane G. Schaal, Gauthier Boyé, Aurélien Creemers, Marie Derolez, Valérie Desroy, Nicolas Fiandrino, Annie Mouton, Théophile L. Simier, Monique Smith, Niamh Ouisse, Vincent |
| author_sort | Jones, Auriane G. |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Coastal lagoons are transitional ecosystems that host a unique diversity of species and support many ecosystem services. Owing to their position at the interface between land and sea, they are also subject to increasing human impacts, which alter their ecological functioning. Because coastal lagoons are naturally highly variable in their environmental conditions, disentangling the effects of anthropogenic disturbances like eutrophication from those of natural variability is a challenging, yet necessary issue to address. Here, we analyze a dataset composed of macrobenthic invertebrate abundances and environmental variables (hydro-morphology, water, sediment and macrophytes) gathered across 29 Mediterranean coastal lagoons located in France, to characterize the main drivers of community composition and structure. Using correlograms, linear models and variance partitioning, we found that lagoon hydro-morphology (connection to the sea and lagoon surface), which affects the level of environmental variability (salinity and temperature), as well as lagoon-scale benthic habitat diversity (using macrophyte morphotypes) seemed to regulate macrofauna distribution, while eutrophication and associated stressors like low dissolved oxygen, acted upon the existing communities, mainly by reducing species richness and diversity. Furthermore, M-AMBI, a multivariate index composed of species richness, Shannon diversity and AMBI (AZTI's Marine Biotic Index) and currently used to evaluate the ecological state of French coastal lagoons, was more sensitive to eutrophication (18%) than to natural variability (9%), with nonetheless 49% of its variability explained jointly by both. To improve the robustness of benthic indicators like M-AMBI and increase the effectiveness of lagoon benthic habitat management, we call for a revision of the ecological groups at the base of the AMBI index and of the current lagoon typology which could be inspired by the lagoon-sea connection levels used in this study. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a7a4e565305d469593f05992022724ab |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2804-3871 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Peer Community In |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Peer Community Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-a7a4e565305d469593f05992022724ab2025-02-07T10:17:17ZengPeer Community InPeer Community Journal2804-38712024-12-01410.24072/pcjournal.49910.24072/pcjournal.499Disentangling the effects of eutrophication and natural variability on macrobenthic communities across French coastal lagoons Jones, Auriane G.0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7668-7334Schaal, Gauthier1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3860-1517Boyé, Aurélien2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5692-7660Creemers, Marie3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7030-3937Derolez, Valérie4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6392-971XDesroy, Nicolas5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9047-5637Fiandrino, Annie6Mouton, Théophile L.7Simier, Monique8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8436-5925Smith, Niamh9Ouisse, Vincent10https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1755-1354MARBEC, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Sète, FranceUniv Brest, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer, LEMAR, Plouzané, FranceIFREMER, Centre de Bretagne, DYNECO, Laboratoire d’Ecologie Benthique Côtière (LEBCO), Plouzané, FranceMARBEC, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Sète, FranceMARBEC, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Sète, FranceIFREMER, Laboratoire Environnement et Ressources Bretagne nord, Dinard, FranceMARBEC, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Sète, FranceMARBEC, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Sète, FranceMARBEC, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Sète, FranceMARBEC, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Sète, FranceMARBEC, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Sète, FranceCoastal lagoons are transitional ecosystems that host a unique diversity of species and support many ecosystem services. Owing to their position at the interface between land and sea, they are also subject to increasing human impacts, which alter their ecological functioning. Because coastal lagoons are naturally highly variable in their environmental conditions, disentangling the effects of anthropogenic disturbances like eutrophication from those of natural variability is a challenging, yet necessary issue to address. Here, we analyze a dataset composed of macrobenthic invertebrate abundances and environmental variables (hydro-morphology, water, sediment and macrophytes) gathered across 29 Mediterranean coastal lagoons located in France, to characterize the main drivers of community composition and structure. Using correlograms, linear models and variance partitioning, we found that lagoon hydro-morphology (connection to the sea and lagoon surface), which affects the level of environmental variability (salinity and temperature), as well as lagoon-scale benthic habitat diversity (using macrophyte morphotypes) seemed to regulate macrofauna distribution, while eutrophication and associated stressors like low dissolved oxygen, acted upon the existing communities, mainly by reducing species richness and diversity. Furthermore, M-AMBI, a multivariate index composed of species richness, Shannon diversity and AMBI (AZTI's Marine Biotic Index) and currently used to evaluate the ecological state of French coastal lagoons, was more sensitive to eutrophication (18%) than to natural variability (9%), with nonetheless 49% of its variability explained jointly by both. To improve the robustness of benthic indicators like M-AMBI and increase the effectiveness of lagoon benthic habitat management, we call for a revision of the ecological groups at the base of the AMBI index and of the current lagoon typology which could be inspired by the lagoon-sea connection levels used in this study.https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.499/Mediterranean Seamacrofaunataxonomic diversityM-AMBImacrophyte morphotypesvariance partitioning |
| spellingShingle | Jones, Auriane G. Schaal, Gauthier Boyé, Aurélien Creemers, Marie Derolez, Valérie Desroy, Nicolas Fiandrino, Annie Mouton, Théophile L. Simier, Monique Smith, Niamh Ouisse, Vincent Disentangling the effects of eutrophication and natural variability on macrobenthic communities across French coastal lagoons Peer Community Journal Mediterranean Sea macrofauna taxonomic diversity M-AMBI macrophyte morphotypes variance partitioning |
| title | Disentangling the effects of eutrophication and natural variability on macrobenthic communities across French coastal lagoons
|
| title_full | Disentangling the effects of eutrophication and natural variability on macrobenthic communities across French coastal lagoons
|
| title_fullStr | Disentangling the effects of eutrophication and natural variability on macrobenthic communities across French coastal lagoons
|
| title_full_unstemmed | Disentangling the effects of eutrophication and natural variability on macrobenthic communities across French coastal lagoons
|
| title_short | Disentangling the effects of eutrophication and natural variability on macrobenthic communities across French coastal lagoons
|
| title_sort | disentangling the effects of eutrophication and natural variability on macrobenthic communities across french coastal lagoons |
| topic | Mediterranean Sea macrofauna taxonomic diversity M-AMBI macrophyte morphotypes variance partitioning |
| url | https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.499/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jonesaurianeg disentanglingtheeffectsofeutrophicationandnaturalvariabilityonmacrobenthiccommunitiesacrossfrenchcoastallagoons AT schaalgauthier disentanglingtheeffectsofeutrophicationandnaturalvariabilityonmacrobenthiccommunitiesacrossfrenchcoastallagoons AT boyeaurelien disentanglingtheeffectsofeutrophicationandnaturalvariabilityonmacrobenthiccommunitiesacrossfrenchcoastallagoons AT creemersmarie disentanglingtheeffectsofeutrophicationandnaturalvariabilityonmacrobenthiccommunitiesacrossfrenchcoastallagoons AT derolezvalerie disentanglingtheeffectsofeutrophicationandnaturalvariabilityonmacrobenthiccommunitiesacrossfrenchcoastallagoons AT desroynicolas disentanglingtheeffectsofeutrophicationandnaturalvariabilityonmacrobenthiccommunitiesacrossfrenchcoastallagoons AT fiandrinoannie disentanglingtheeffectsofeutrophicationandnaturalvariabilityonmacrobenthiccommunitiesacrossfrenchcoastallagoons AT moutontheophilel disentanglingtheeffectsofeutrophicationandnaturalvariabilityonmacrobenthiccommunitiesacrossfrenchcoastallagoons AT simiermonique disentanglingtheeffectsofeutrophicationandnaturalvariabilityonmacrobenthiccommunitiesacrossfrenchcoastallagoons AT smithniamh disentanglingtheeffectsofeutrophicationandnaturalvariabilityonmacrobenthiccommunitiesacrossfrenchcoastallagoons AT ouissevincent disentanglingtheeffectsofeutrophicationandnaturalvariabilityonmacrobenthiccommunitiesacrossfrenchcoastallagoons |