open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/72484

Broad scale variation in seagrass benthic macrofaunal assemblages along the coast of Japan

英語

Similarity-distance relationship

2018-01

Springer

Ecological research

33(1)

105-117

Broad scale studies in seagrass benthic macrofauna are important for future regional marine conservation. 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 24A degrees-43A degrees N. Total species richness and ES(50) at site level did not show clear site variations and relationship with latitude. At core level, site variations of mean species richness, ES(50), Simpson diversity and abundance showed inconsistent pattern, but with more cases of statistically significant association with latitude. Variations were generally influenced by the seagrass species, often among subtropical species, among temperate Zostera species, and between Zostera and subtropical species. Finally, the community composition differed significantly across all sites and community similarity decreased rapidly with geographic distance, with only 5% similarity retained at the distance of 400 km. The dissimilarity among sites was higher with the similar distance compared to other types of coastal communities such as rocky intertidal assemblages, which is associated with minor occurrence of species with broad distributional range.

学術雑誌論文

Accepted Manuscript

The final publication is available at link.springer.com

0912-3814