Cross-taxon congruence in benthic communities: Searching for surrogates in marine sediments |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel;2. Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malchei Yisrael St., 95501 Jerusalem, Israel;1. Laboratory of Nutrition and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, SP, Brazil;2. School of Physical Education and Sport of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, SP, Brazil;3. Department of Structural and Functional Biology, University of Campinas, SP, Brazil |
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Abstract: | Cross-taxon congruence has been suggested as an efficient tool in conservation planning and biodiversity monitoring. It corresponds to the degree to which patterns in assemblage structure in a set of sites are similar among different taxonomic groups. If different groups ordinate the sampling sites similarly, they are concordant and this information is frequently used as an indicative that one group could be used as a surrogate for the other. Using spatiotemporal benthic data from a biodiverse coastal ecosystem (the Araçá Bay in southeast Brazil), we first assessed if macro- and meiofaunal assemblages inhabiting marine soft-sediments show concordant patterns. Then, we used multi- and univariate analysis to examine the relationship of both groups with the environment. Macro- and meiofaunal assemblages exhibited strong congruent patterns in all periods analyzed. Moreover, both groups responded to similar environmental features and their ordination patterns matched those generated by the environmental data. These results show that the patterns of concordance are probably mediated by similar responses to environmental gradients. Overall, our results suggest the potential for use of the surrogacy approach in conservation planning and monitoring purposes of marine benthic biodiversity, and that macro- and meiofauna can be used as a surrogate for each other. |
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Keywords: | Procrustes Protest Regression models GAM Concordance Macrofauna Meiofauna Coastal environments Araçá bay |
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