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A multidisciplinary approach to study confined marine basins: the holobenthic and merobenthic assemblages in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto (Ionian Sea, Mediterranean)

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Abstract

Benthic foraminifera and ostracods, and resting stages (cysts) of plankton were analysed from surface sediment samples collected at 20 stations in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto (Ionian Sea, Mediterranean), with the aim to advance our knowledge on the biodiversity and ecological features of confined marine areas and to upgrade the autoecology of the species, and to have a more detailed and complete information to be applied as the baseline in future studies on environmental quality. In order to better assess the spatial distribution of the holobenthic and merobenthic species, we conceived a simple method of spatial analysis, based on all the identified taxa of foraminifera, ostracods and plankton cysts. Five groups were established on the basis of the number of sites per sub-basin where each taxon was registered, and this allowed us to recognise the preferential patterns of distribution for 150 species. The good correspondence between the results of the spatial analysis and those obtained from the analysis of the communities and the uni- and multivariate statistics showed a clear difference between the two sub-basins of the Mar Piccolo of Taranto.

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Acknowledgements

The field and laboratory work was financially supported by the CNR-Institute for Coastal Marine Environment of Taranto, Dipartimento di Scienze Pure e Applicate (DiSPeA), Università degli Studi di Urbino “Carlo Bo” and CNR-Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Pisa, Italy. Special thanks are owed to Mr. Cosimo Macripò for his technical assistance aboard the ‘Aristocle.’ The two anonymous reviewers contributed to improve the manuscript thanks to their very accurate comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNR-Istituto per l’Ambiente Marino Costiero Calata Porta di Massa, 80133, Naples, Italy

    L. Ferraro

  2. CNR-Istituto per l’Ambiente Marino Costiero, UOS of Taranto, via Roma 3, 74123, Taranto, Italy

    F. Rubino & M. Belmonte

  3. CNR-Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    S. Da Prato

  4. Dipartimento di Scienze Pure e Applicate (DiSPeA), Università degli Studi di Urbino “Carlo Bo”, 61029, Urbino, Italy

    M. Greco & F. Frontalini

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  1. L. Ferraro
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  2. F. Rubino
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  3. M. Belmonte
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  4. S. Da Prato
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  5. M. Greco
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  6. F. Frontalini
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Correspondence to F. Rubino.

Additional information

Communicated by P. Martinez Arbizu

Electronic supplementary material

Below are the links to the electronic supplementary material.

Online Resource 1

Registered densities of living benthic foraminifera in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto surface sediments (PDF 88 kb)

Online Resource 2

Registered densities of living benthic ostracods in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto surface sediments (PDF 77 kb)

Online Resource 3

Registered densities of full (i.e. presumably viable) cysts of plankton in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto surface sediments (PDF 96 kb)

Online Resource 4

Ecological aspects and spatial analysis of taxa (PDF 286 kb)

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Ferraro, L., Rubino, F., Belmonte, M. et al. A multidisciplinary approach to study confined marine basins: the holobenthic and merobenthic assemblages in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto (Ionian Sea, Mediterranean). Mar Biodiv 47, 887–911 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-016-0523-0

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