Depth-related patterns of meiofauna on the Indian continental shelf are conserved at reduced taxonomic resolution |
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Authors: | S Sajan T V Joydas R Damodaran |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology and Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, 682 016, Kerala, India;(2) Present address: Unicomarine Limited, 7 Diamond Centre, Works Road, Letchworth, Herts, SG6 1LW, United Kingdom;(3) Center for Environment and Water, Research Institute, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, P.B. No. 1995, Dhahran, 31261, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; |
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Abstract: | Taxonomic sufficiency (TS) has been used in impact assessment studies of various pollution effects on marine benthic communities
and found appropriate to identify the effects of pollution on marine communities. Cost, in terms of the expertise and time
needed to identify organisms, increases with the level of taxonomic accuracy. Recently, TS has been adopted to study spatial
patterns of macrobenthic community structure. In order to accept TS as a routine approach in wider benthic studies, it needs
to be proved valid for various taxa and in geographically different areas. The present study investigates the value of TS
in meiofaunal nematodes by analyzing an extensive data set based on samples collected from a wide geographical area covering
a large depth gradient. For this study, samples were collected from every degree square of the western Indian continental
shelf (7°–22°N latitudes). Our high resolution data showed that with increase in depth, nematode species richness and diversity
decreased and communities showed significant variation between shallow and deeper waters. The present study tests whether
lower taxonomic resolution nematode data can explain community shifts along a depth gradient in a similar way to species level
data from the same data set. Meiofauna have often been neglected from benthic studies, and most attention has been given to
macrofauna. This is mainly due to the difficulty in the taxonomic identification of meiofauna. The results of this study based
on univariate and multivariate analyses support the use of family level data of nematodes to explain some aspects of depth
variation in a similar way to species level data. |
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