Variability of soft-bottom macrobenthic invertebrates at different spatial scales: Comparisons between habitats and seasons.

Studies focusing on patterns of spatial variation in marine soft-bottom assemblages suggest that variability is mainly concentrated at small spatial scale (from tens of centimeters to few meters), but there is still a lack of knowledge about the consistency of this spatial pattern across habitats and seasons. To address this issue, we quantified the variability in the structure of macrozoobenthic assemblages and in the abundance of dominant macroinvertebrate species in the Mellah Lagoon (Algeria) at three spatial scales, i.e.

Temporal changes of a food web structure driven by different primary producers in a subtropical eutrophic lagoon.

Coastal lagoons are often characterized by eutrophic conditions which are known to impair the structure and functioning of both pelagic and benthic compartments. However, the manner in which eutrophication triggers a series of cascade effects in the whole food web in coastal lagoons has received little attention. Using stable isotope (SI) analyses, we investigated the food web structure in the hypertrophic lagoon of Yundang (Xiamen, China) in two periods of the year characterized by the recurrent alternation of Ulva lactuca and phytoplankton blooms in the cool (March) and warm (September) seasons, respectively.

Spatiotemporal variation in environmental features and elemental/isotopic composition of organic matter sources and primary producers in the Yundang Lagoon (Xiamen, China).

Aquatic eutrophication is a major problem globally, leading to significant chemical-compositional changes in the first trophic levels of a food web. These will consequently affect the whole food web dynamics in eutrophic coastal ecosystems. In this study, we analyzed the spatiotemporal variation in water chlorophyll-a, total organic carbon (TOC) and TOC/Chl-a ratio, and in the elemental/isotopic (C/N, δC, δN) composition of particulate organic matter (POM), phytoplankton, sedimentary organic matter, benthic microalgae, U.

Diverse effects of invasive ecosystem engineers on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functions: A global review and meta-analysis.

Invasive ecosystem engineers (IEE) are potentially one of the most influential types of biological invaders. They are expected to have extensive ecological impacts by altering the physical-chemical structure of ecosystems, thereby changing the rules of existence for a broad range of resident biota. To test the generality of this expectation, we used a global systematic review and meta-analysis to examine IEE effects on the abundance of individual species and communities, biodiversity (using several indices) and ecosystem functions, focusing on marine and estuarine environments.

Patterns of seasonal variation in lagoonal macrozoobenthic assemblages (Mellah lagoon, Algeria).

In coastal lagoons, many studies indicated that macrozoobenthic assemblages undergo marked temporal fluctuations as related to the strong environmental variability of these systems. However, most of these studies have not assessed the seasonal patterns of these fluctuations and none of them has investigated the consistency of this variation in different areas within the same lagoon system. In this study, we assessed patterns of variation at multiple temporal (date, season and year) scales in two different areas in the coastal lagoon of Mellah (northeast Algeria).