Pubblicazione scientifica

Low connectivity between shallow, mesophotic and rariphotic zone benthos

FILONE TECNOLOGICO	TEMA
economia circolare e sostenibilità

RIASSUNTO

Worldwide coral reefs face catastrophic damage due to a series of anthropogenic stressors. Investigating how coral reefs ecosystems are connected, in particular across depth, will help us understand if deeper reefs harbour distinct communities. Here, we explore changes in benthic community structure across 15–300 m depths using technical divers and submersibles around Bermuda. We report high levels of floral and faunal differentiation across depth, with distinct assemblages occupying each depth surveyed, except 200–300 m, corresponding to the lower rariphotic zone. Community turnover was highest at the boundary depths of mesophotic coral ecosystems (30–150 m) driven largely by taxonomic turnover and to a lesser degree by ordered species loss (nestedness). Our work highlights the biologically unique nature of benthic communities in the mesophotic and rariphotic zones, and their limited connectivity to shallow reefs, thus emphasizing the need to manage and protect deeper reefs as distinct entities.

DATA

Data di pubblicazione: 18/09/2019

AUTORI

STEFANOUDIS PARIS V
RIVERS MOLLY
SMITH STRUAN R
SCHNEIDER CRAIG W
WAGNER DANIEL
FORD HELEN
ROGERS ALEX D
WOODALL LUCY C

ENTE DI AFFERENZA

NEKTON FNDN BEGBROKE
DEPT ZOOLOGY UNIV OXFORD ZOOLOGY RSCH & ADMIN BLDG 11A
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BERMUDA AQUARIUM MUSEUM & ZOO
DEPT BIOLOGY TRINITY COLLEGE HARTFORD CT 06106 USA
NOAA OFFICE OF OCEAN EXPLORATION & RSCH
SCHOOL OF OCEAN SCIENCES BANGOR UNIV MENAI BRIDGE ANGLESEY LL59 5AB UK

RIVISTA

Royal Society Open Science, 6(9), 190958

IMPACT FACTOR

2,680

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