Mr.
Title:
Mr.
Keywords:
abundance and species diversity, latitudinal gradient, macroecology, regional variation, similarity-distance relationshipAbstract:
There is little information on the faunal communities in seagrass beds of Asia, despite that its seagrass species diversity is the highest in the world. We examined spatial variation in the community structure of seagrass-associated benthic macroinvertebrates collected by sediment coring in 2010 at six seagrass sites of Japan covering the latitudinal range of 24° to 43°N. Although species richness at the site level did not vary with latitude, at core level (of 0.02 m2 area) it showed otherwise. The macrofaunal abundance also has clear site latitudinal cline which increased towards higher latitude. The community composition differed significantly across all sites. Decay in community similarity with geographic distance was also observed, with higher community dissimilarity compared to other types of coastal communities. The observed latitudinal gradient in macrofaunal diversity and abundance is considered partly related to higher aboveground biomass of seagrass which also increased with latitude. The high dissimilarity among sites is associated with minor occurrence of species with broad distributional range.??
Objectives:
1. Examine the spatial variation in the community structure of seagrass-associated benthic macroinvertebrates.
Methods:
Sediment Coning
Findings and Results:
1. The macrofaunal abundance also has clear site latitudinal cline which increased towards higher latitude.
2. The community composition differed significantly across all sites. Decay in community similarity with geographic distance was also observed, with higher community dissimilarity compared to other types of coastal communities.
Conclusion:
1. The observed latitudinal gradient in macrofaunal diversity and abundance is considered partly related to higher aboveground biomass of seagrass which also increased with latitude.
This research is published at the