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Can coastal biodiversity measured in four Mediterranean sites be representative of the region? A test for the robustness of the NaGISA protocol by using the hard substrate syllid (Annelida, Polychaeta) taxo-communities as a surrogate

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Abstract

The global NaGISA (Natural Geography in Shore Areas) initiative focusing on long-term monitoring of coastal biodiversity has recently been expanded to the Mediterranean. On the basis of datasets from four Mediterranean hard substrate sites and by using the most abundant polychaete family (Syllidae), two questions are addressed in this study: (a) Is the biodiversity sampled in the two NaGISA sites, based on the family Syllidae, representative of the regional one of the Mediterranean Sea? (b) Are local syllid taxo-communities assembled at random from the regional species pool? Randomisation tests determining to what extent local species lists and their phylogenetic relationships are assembled at random from a regional one showed that at small observational scales (e.g. replicate units, depths) the phylogenetic diversity is assembled at random from the one known to exist locally. It is assumed, therefore, that local processes here have a stronger influence on community assembly than historical-evolutionary processes. The latter is in accordance with previous results derived from using polychaetes to test the same hypotheses at a pan-European level. Local syllid biodiversity in the western Mediterranean is a random subset of the Mediterranean one, whereas that of the NaGISA sites in the eastern Mediterranean is only under certain conditions. Therefore, the currently observed biodiversity of the Mediterranean sites can be considered as representative of that of the entire regional sea only under certain assumptions, as far as the syllid taxo-communities are concerned, demonstrating the potential of the taxon as a surrogate of the polychaete biodiversity.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Thanos Dailianis, Wanda Plaiti, Panagiotis Vavilis and Dr. Elena Sarropoulou for assistance during SCUBA diving and obtaining samples, Manolis Pettas and Kostas Christodoulou for help in designing and constructing the sampling devices (frames and suction), Vasiliki Markantonatou for help in sorting the samples and Dr. Guillermo San Martín for assisting in finding suitable datasets and literature resources. The two anonymous reviewers are particularly acknowledged for their constructive comments and suggestions.

The datasets on which the current study is based on will be made available through the EMODnet (http://bio.emodnet.eu/) and MedOBIS (http://www.medobis.org) data portals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Crete, 71409, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Georgios Chatzigeorgiou

  2. Department of Zoology-Marine Biology, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, 15784, Athens, Greece

    Sarah Faulwetter

  3. Laboratorio de Biología Marina, Departamento de Biología (Zoología), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Eduardo López

  4. Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CEAB), Consejo Superior Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), 17300, Blanes, Girona, Spain

    Rafael Sardá

  5. Institute of Marine Biology and Genetics, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, 71003, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Georgios Chatzigeorgiou, Sarah Faulwetter & Christos Arvanitidis

Authors
  1. Georgios Chatzigeorgiou
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  2. Sarah Faulwetter
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  3. Eduardo López
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  4. Rafael Sardá
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  5. Christos Arvanitidis
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Correspondence to Georgios Chatzigeorgiou.

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Handling editor: Vasilis Valavanis

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Chatzigeorgiou, G., Faulwetter, S., López, E. et al. Can coastal biodiversity measured in four Mediterranean sites be representative of the region? A test for the robustness of the NaGISA protocol by using the hard substrate syllid (Annelida, Polychaeta) taxo-communities as a surrogate. Hydrobiologia 691, 147–156 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1065-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1065-5

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